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Help keep food on the table for our struggling neighbors.
A proposed Administration rule would gut the Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility option in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The proposal would take away school meals from children, hurt seniors and families who save for the future, and punish workers for getting a raise. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has funded research analyzing the impact in Kentucky– over 11,000 households would lose benefits.
The public has until September 23, 2019 to submit comments here on how dangerous this proposal is to the health and well-being of many Americans.
HB 3 would have hurt Kentucky kids and families.
- It would take away modest SNAP (formerly food stamps) food assistance received by the parents of children over the age of five. Recipients would need to participate in “workfare” — essentially an unpaid internship — if they are not already working at least 20 hours a week. Workfare has not been shown to be effective in moving families to self-sufficiency and reporting requirements are proven tripwires for losing assistance even when the recipient is technically in compliance.
- It contains a requirement for any person with a criminal history involving substance abuse to pay for a drug test prior to becoming eligible for SNAP. Because the state will reimburse the applicant after a negative test, and public assistance participants do not have higher rates of drug use than other Kentuckians, the costs to the state would be great.
- It requires the state to include a photo on SNAP cards, costing the state millions to implement and triggering a federal law that would require all SNAP-approved grocery stores to ask for photo ID from anyone paying with a credit or bank card.
- Click here to read more on the issue.
Thankfully the bill died in committee during the 2019 session of the Kentucky General Assembly
Thank you for taking action against hunger!
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