Texas legislators are reviewing a proposal that would restrict individuals using the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) from spending those funds on unhealthy food choices. This legislative move comes as former President Donald Trump’s administration pushes forward with its Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative.
The legislation under review, known as Senate Bill 379, was introduced by Republican State Senator Mayes Middleton of Galveston. The bill would prohibit SNAP recipients from using their benefits on items such as soda, candy, cookies, chips, and energy drinks, according to a report by Fox 4, a Dallas-Fort Worth news station.
Middleton explained that his motivation for introducing the bill stems from a desire to return to the program’s foundational goals and steer recipients toward healthier food selections.
“The USDA’s stated purpose for the SNAP program is nutritious food essential to health and wellbeing. Well, junk food certainly doesn’t fit that purpose. So having those types of foods and drinks qualified under the program is actually contrary to the entire purpose of the SNAP program, the food stamp program,” the lawmaker told Fox 4.
Simultaneously, the Trump administration has placed increasing focus on the dangers of highly processed foods, aiming to combat declining public health, as reported by the Associated Press on March 15.
At his Senate confirmation hearing in January, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. addressed the country’s growing burden of chronic illness, which he said was affecting both adults and children, according to Breitbart News.
He cited several ways the MAHA initiative could be implemented, including changes to federally funded programs like SNAP and school meal plans.
“We shouldn’t be giving 60 percent of the kids in school processed food that is making them sick. … We shouldn’t be spending 10 percent of the SNAP program on sugar drinks. […] [W]e have a direct ability to change things,” he said, adding that “we need to focus more on outcome-based medicine, on putting people in charge of their own health care, of making them accountable for their own health care so they understand the relationship between eating and getting sick.”
During Trump’s initial time in office, the number of households receiving SNAP benefits dropped by over 2.4 million between February 2017 and October 2019, based on figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as shared by Breitbart News.
The decline followed legislative actions in multiple states that introduced work-related eligibility requirements, aiming to reduce reliance on public assistance. These measures obligated SNAP beneficiaries to either work, volunteer, attend school, or participate in job training programs for a minimum of 20 hours per week.
However, under President Joe Biden in 2022, SNAP benefits saw a 12.5 percent increase, attributed largely to surging inflation, Breitbart News reported.
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