Republicans Are Trying to End SNAP - Entirely

Only you can stop it.

The Senate will likely vote this week, as early as Wednesday, to cut hundreds of billions from Medicaid, SNAP, and Medicare. It’s an ongoing saga Paycheck readers have been engaged in, and it continues through a critical phase.

The Senate parliamentarian said the budget bill can’t be used to push through Republican-backed changes like shifting costs for SNAP to states and banning immigrants from the program.

That block is good because if the cost shift to states happens (which is still possible) then this will be the end of a program that helps over 40 million Americans put food on the table. I’ll tell you more after a brief word from our sponsor.

Should the cost shift to states happen, states will be newly met with costs ranging between hundreds of millions and billions of dollars. If you don’t know much about state government, here’s a running theme: states don’t even have the budget to do all they are doing right now. So if this new cost comes down the pike for them, they won’t be able to afford the costs. If they can’t afford SNAP, then they’ll withdraw from the program.

This would not only increase hunger in ways we’ve never seen, but it would also send a shockwave throughout the farmer to grocery supply chain, causing devastation across the economy.

Enraged? Let’s get you engaged.

Call your Senator’s office with this script (read the whole thing before doing it so you have a good sense of what to do). Is your Senator a lost cause, jump to the bottom for a different action item:

1. Use this link to find your Senator’s phone number and call their office. You’ll speak with a staffer, not the Senator. When the receptionist answers, ask to speak with the staffer who works on SNAP or agriculture issues.

2. “Hello, my name is [Your Name], and I live in [City], [State]. I’m a constituent calling to urge Senator [Name] to protect the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, in the upcoming budget negotiations.”

3. “I’m calling about the Senate budget bill. It contains unprecedented, harmful cuts and structural changes to SNAP and Medicaid that would devastate families and our state economy. I strongly urge the Senator to oppose these provisions and make sure [he/she] does not vote for any single cut to SNAP or Medicaid.”

4. Choose 3-4 to raise on the call.

   1. Shifts Huge Costs to States:
      The bill would force states to pay up to 15 percent of SNAP food benefits and raise the state share of administrative costs from 50 percent to 75 percent. If the Parliamentarian’s decision is overruled, then the cost shift would likely force our state to withdraw from the program simply because we don’t have the budget for this unfunded mandate.

   2. Harms Kids, Grandparents, & Caregivers:
      It limits benefits to just three months in three years for parents of children as young as ten, grandparents, and older adults unless they can prove 20 hours of work each week—ignoring caregiving duties, child-care access, and local job conditions.

   3. Worsens Health & Drives Up Costs:
      SNAP is proven to improve health, reduce hospitalizations, and boost kids’ educational success. Cutting it will raise health-care and education costs.

   4. Damages Local Economies:
      Every $1 of SNAP benefits creates up to $1.80 in economic activity. In food retail alone, SNAP sustains nearly 200,000 jobs and $16 billion in wages nationwide. Slashing nearly 30 percent of SNAP would hit rural and low-income communities hardest.

   5. Food Banks Can’t Fill the Gap:
      For every nine meals SNAP provides, charities supply only one. They can’t replace a program of this scale.

5. “Please tell Senator [Name] to:

   • Publicly oppose any SNAP cuts.

   • Work with Senate colleagues to ensure SNAP remains fully federally funded and accessible to all eligible families.”

Tips

• Be courteous

• Staffers are noting tallies.

• Personalize with a brief story if you have one (e.g., how SNAP helped your family or someone you know).

• Keep it under two minutes—the shorter and clearer, the bigger the impact.

Lost Cause Senators

Support national organizations that are pushing against the Trump agenda because this pushback is working. Send whatever amount you can because every bit helps!

• Protect Democracy filed an important lawsuit that made Trump second-guess his attempt to force state vendors to share identifiable information.

• ACLU is successfully pushing back against Trump’s crusade against immigrant students.

• Giffords Law Center is engaged in multiple lawsuits against gun manufacturers for their role in gun violence.

• Center for Reproductive Rights is engaged in multiple lawsuits against harmful laws that restrict access to abortion and other reproductive rights.