{"id":72954,"date":"2025-05-21T11:44:27","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T18:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=72954"},"modified":"2025-05-21T11:44:27","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T18:44:27","slug":"millions-of-children-face-hunger-as-congress-pushes-through-massive-cut-to-snap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=72954","title":{"rendered":"Millions of Children Face Hunger as Congress Pushes Through Massive Cut to SNAP"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Sunita Sohrabji<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201dPediatricians are losing sleep over these proposed cuts.\u201d \u2014 Dr. Sue Kressly, president of the American Pediatric Association<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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(Canva image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote May 22 on a proposal that would slash $300 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.<\/p>\n

SNAP currently provides food assistance to over 42 million people, including an estimated 20 million children. The proposed cuts are part of a massive budget reconciliation package, which also includes a $715 billion cut to Medicaid. Congress is seeking to slash $1.5 trillion from this year\u2019s budget, to support President Donald Trump\u2019s plan of over $4 trillion in tax breaks over the next decade.<\/p>\n

The House Rules Committee is scheduled to weigh in on the plan May 21. Hard-line Republicans have proposed deeper cuts to the Medicaid budget. But, according to several news sources, Trump was overheard telling Republicans May 20: \u201cDon\u2019t f**k with Medicaid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2019Pediatricians Are Losing Sleep\u2019<\/h2>\n

SNAP benefits are provided to working families, seniors and disabled people. To\u00a0qualify<\/a>, families must be below 130% of the federal poverty line. Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for SNAP assistance.<\/p>\n

\u201dPediatricians are losing sleep over these proposed cuts,\u201d said Dr. Sue Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, at a press conference May 20 organized by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. One in 5 households currently suffer from food insecurity and that number would increase exponentially if the SNAP budget is slashed, she noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know first-hand that SNAP keeps children healthy,\u201d said Kressly, noting that hunger impacts a child\u2019s development and their ability to learn. In the long-term, as families are forced to decide between putting dinner on the table or seeing a doctor, children\u2019s health will decline and chronic diseases will return, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201dNutritious food is medicine. I urge Congress to reject these cuts. The children of America are relying on us,\u201d said Kressly.<\/p>\n

State Funding<\/h2>\n

Currently, SNAP is completely supported by federal dollars. But beginning in 2028, 5 to 25% of SNAP funding will be derived from states. This may force many lower-income states to drop out of the program, said Ty Jones Cox, Vice President for Food Assistance at the CBPP. Many states have already said they will be unable to backfill the federal cuts to SNAP.<\/p>\n

Jones Cox noted that the proposed 30% slash in SNAP\u2019s budget was the largest ever in the program\u2019s 50-year tenure.<\/p>\n

School Lunch<\/h2>\n

Children who qualify for free lunch programs are disqualified once they lose their SNAP benefits which determines eligibility, said Jones Cox. Furthermore, if a school lacks sufficient enrollees for its nutrition program, it may face disqualification, she added.<\/p>\n

The cuts will have a downstream effect on farmers, grocers, and food banks, noted the panelists.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe overall impact of the Republican budget plan deeply hurts people in low wage jobs, provides only modest help to the middle class, and showers wealth onto the already wealthy,\u201d said Sharon Parrott, president of the CBPP.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BySunita Sohrabji May 20, 2025 \u201dPediatricians...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72954"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72955,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72954\/revisions\/72955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}