Today, Congressman Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. (GA-02), Chairman of the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies, released a statement on the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) decision to withdraw the proposed rule to eliminate SNAP broad-based categorical-eligibility:
“I’m glad that USDA has decided to withdraw this immoral directive, which would have kicked three million Americans off SNAP, including children, working families, veterans, people with disabilities, and seniors. Additionally, following through with this rule would have placed hundreds of thousands of children at risk of losing free school meals and would have also jeopardized food access and local economies by costing grocery retailers an estimated three billion dollars in sales.”
“Broad-based categorical-eligibility allows hard-working Americans trying to escape the cycle of poverty to save money while receiving SNAP, offering a path to financial sustainability. We should be working to remove barriers to hunger reduction and upward mobility, not creating them. I applaud USDA and Secretary Vilsack for putting an end to this effort to create barriers between food assistance and people who need it.”
According to external analyses of the proposed rule:
- of the 796,916 households in Georgia on SNAP overall, 7 percent (approximately 55,457) would have lost all of their SNAP benefits under the proposed rule;
- of the 681,129 households in Georgia on SNAP in poverty, 3 percent (approximately 19,640) would have lost all of their SNAP benefits under the proposed rule;
- of the 387,748 households in Georgia on SNAP with children, 4 percent (approximately 16,687) would have lost all of their SNAP benefits under the proposed rule;
- of the 259,964 households in Georgia on SNAP with earnings, 9 percent (approximately 23,050) would have lost all of their SNAP benefits under the proposed rule;
- of the 145,062 households in Georgia on SNAP with elderly individuals, 16 percent (approximately 22,920) would have lost all of their SNAP benefits under the proposed rule; and
- of the 168,811 households in Georgia on SNAP with an individual with disabilities, 2 percent (approximately 4,103) would have lost all of their SNAP benefits under the proposed rule.
On a national level, the proposed rule would have stripped benefits from 9 percent of SNAP households (approximately 1.9 million households) across 42 states, disproportionately affecting households with adults aged 60 or over.
Original source can be found here.
