Democrats Stay Strong for SNAP
Senate and House Democrats on the Agriculture Committees
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Republicans scored a small victory when Congress included additional SNAP work requirements in the final debt limit deal. With Farm Bill negotiations advancing, we're sending letters to House and Senate Ag committee Democrats demanding they hold the line on SNAP in this year's Farm Bill.
Speaker McCarthy and the White House negotiated a debt deal this week that adds additional work requirements and other restrictions on SNAP despite calls to take SNAP off the negotiating table.
SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly called "food stamps," is a federal nutrition program critical for fighting hunger in the United States. Not only is SNAP a safety net for families who have fallen on hard times, the program can be a powerful source of economic stimulus for farmers and small-town businesses. USDA research shows each $1 billion of retail generated by SNAP creates $340 million in farm production, $110 million in farm value-added, and 3,300 farm jobs.
However, the GOP has been working for the last decade to undermine SNAP as part of their agenda to dismantle federal public assistance programs.
The newly-announced limitations to SNAP are outrageous because research shows work requirements don't work. We know this is another attempt at whittling away our safety net at the expense of working families, many of whom are homeless, living in small towns and rural communities with little or no access to employment, or have health conditions that prevent them from working.
Now, Republicans are looking to the Farm Bill to erode SNAP protections further. Please join us in sending a message to Senate and House Democrats on the Agriculture Committee to #StayStrongForSnap and don't compromise again in this year's Farm Bill.
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To:
Senate and House Democrats on the Agriculture Committees
From:
[Your Name]
The 2023 Farm Bill is critical in addressing hunger in rural America.
A larger percentage of rural people actually use SNAP when compared with urban and suburban places. According to the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), rural people are 25% more likely than their urban counterparts to participate in SNAP. Nationally, participation is highest among households in rural counties (16%) compared with households in metro counties (13%).
More people use SNAP in rural America because rural counties tend to have higher poverty rates than metropolitan counties. According to Daily Yonder analysis, 301 of 353 (85.3%) persistently-poor counties in the U.S. are rural. Persistent poverty counties (as USDA’s Economic Research Service terms them) are clustered in the South (84%). Of the 301 nonmetro persistent poverty counties, 267(88.7%) had a poverty rate over 20%.
The 2023 Farm Bill provides an opportunity to strengthen, not restrict, the programs that mitigated hunger during the pandemic and address persistent disparities.
When reauthorizing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other federal nutrition programs, policymakers should ensure all communities experience food security in a way that promotes equity and dignity and advances a hunger-free future and not bend to Republican concessions.
Please stay strong for SNAP in this year's Farm bill.