{"id":12927,"date":"2025-05-27T15:34:45","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T20:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowermissouri.org\/?p=12927"},"modified":"2025-05-27T15:34:50","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T20:34:50","slug":"invest-in-human-dignity-by-saving-snap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowermissouri.org\/es\/invest-in-human-dignity-by-saving-snap\/","title":{"rendered":"Invest in Human Dignity by Saving SNAP"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tonight, I\u2019m catching a flight to Washington, D.C. to meet with staffers of Missouri\u2019s congressional delegation and express Missourians\u2019 opposition to the $300 billion in proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in Congress\u2019s \u201cone big, beautiful bill.\u201d Empower Missouri\u2019s focus has traditionally been on state-level policy, but the proposed cuts to Medicaid and SNAP would be so damaging to families earning low wages across the state that we feel that we have no choice but to join thousands of other advocates across the country in organizing opposition to these changes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two weeks ago, my colleague Lucas Caldwell-McMillan wrote an excellent piece<\/a> detailing the myriad of federal policy changes being considered by the Trump administration that would have a devastating impact on families living in poverty. It\u2019s a great primer, and I highly recommend giving it a read. Today, I\u2019d like to dig a little bit deeper into all of the proposed changes to the SNAP program and how they would impact the 620,000 Missourians (1 in 10 Missouri residents) who benefit from this program each year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposal has two major provisions that I\u2019d like to unpack. (If you\u2019re interested in a more detailed analysis of all of the provisions and their impact on Missouri, you can review a report issued jointly last week<\/a> by Empower Missouri and Missouri Budget Project.) The first major change is a substantial shifting of program costs from the federal government to state governments. Currently, the federal government covers 100% of the grocery benefit provided to SNAP-eligible households as well as 50% of the administrative costs of the program. The new proposal would require states to cover 75% of the administrative costs and somewhere between 5% and 25% of the grocery benefits, based on each state\u2019s individual error rate (a calculation of underpayments and overpayments from an audited sample of SNAP case files).  Based on Missouri\u2019s most recent error rate, we would fall into the 25% bucket, forcing the state to find an additional $400M to pay for SNAP on an annual basis. The federal government has proposed no plan for if Missouri does not have the funding available in their state budget to pay for SNAP. We\u2019re deeply concerned about the possibility of Missouri being unable to contribute their new share and all of our citizens being pushed out of the program as a result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second major change is an expansion of work requirements and time limits for SNAP recipients. Under current SNAP rules, most adults aged 18 through 54 without children in their household can receive food benefits for just three months in a three-year period unless they show compliance with a 20-hour-per-week work requirement or prove they qualify for an exemption, such as having a disability.  The new proposal expands these work requirements with the harsh and ineffective 3-month time limit to include both parents or grandparents living with children 7 or older (unless caring for the child while both married to and living with an adult meeting the work rules) and older adults aged 55 through 64. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Decades of research shows that work requirements do not increase employment or earnings. It is particularly cruel to expand work hours tracking requirements for adults between 55 and 64, as older adults often face additional barriers to employment, such as age-related hiring discrimination, which may heighten their risk of being cut off of SNAP. Additionally, more than half of low-income adults in this age range report a health barrier to work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also do not believe that the Missouri Department of Social Services has the capability to appropriately manage additional work hours tracking requirements. A federal judge recently issued a court order clearly stating that Missouri is out of compliance with federal law in its administration of the SNAP program. Judge Harpool wrote, \u201cMissourians who are eligible for SNAP benefits have continued to endure wholly unacceptable bureaucratic telephone wait times and benefit denials solely because of the inadequacy of the system. In short, food challenged Missourians who clearly qualify for SNAP benefits have gone hungry due to Defendant\u2019s deficiencies in administering the program.\u201d  <\/em>As of March 2025, the average wait time to complete the mandated intake interview for SNAP is over an hour, and a shocking 48.22% of SNAP applications were rejected solely for failure to complete the interview and not based on any other qualifying factor.  If more staff from the obviously overburdened call center have to spend their time checking the work hours tracking of older adults and busy parents, we can expect that even more Missourians in need will be denied the food benefits they so desperately need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last ten days, we\u2019ve gathered signatures from nearly 500 organizations and individuals in Missouri who oppose cuts to SNAP. In closing, I\u2019d like to share some of their comments that they\u2019ve asked us to pass along to our representatives in DC: <\/p>\n\n\n\n