No red tape for SNAP, TANF, or Medicaid!

As your constituent, I am urging you to reject the House-passed legislation that would impose red tape roadblocks on participants in SNAP, TANF, and Medicaid likely to result in millions of people losing vital health care, food, and income support. These work rules will do nothing to encourage work or improve the economy. But research confirms they will make people hungrier and unable to get medical care. And it will be Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities that will be hit the hardest. Due to centuries of racial discrimination in employment, housing, education, and several other fields, communities of color have a higher poverty rate than white communities. They’re enrolled in SNAP, TANF, and Medicaid at significantly higher rates, which is why these programs are so vital—they play a huge role in alleviating racial disparities. Not only are these work requirements cruel, they’re completely unnecessary. The majority of working age people without disabilities who receive SNAP benefits are working or have worked recently. They just happen to work in unstable, low-paying jobs. SNAP benefits help them fill in the gaps between what they earn and the rising cost of groceries. It also frees up more money in their paychecks for housing and medical costs. The House GOP bill would expand the already harsh work reporting requirements in SNAP to include people aged 50 through 55—putting nutritional assistance of nearly 1 million people at risk. Under the Trump administration, Arkansas instituted work requirements for Medicaid, and the result was that 18,000 people lost their health insurance. Many were actually still eligible, but they did not successfully provide proof of work or exemption from work—sometimes because they never received notices. If that plan is instituted nationwide, nearly 21 million people would be at risk. We can’t allow that to happen. Further, the additional restrictions in TANF could push 1 million more children into poverty. These are critical programs that are already severely underfunded and the last thing we should do—as the richest country in the world—-is force vulnerable people to lose essential aid because they cannot jump over bureaucratic hurdles to get the care and support they need. Please reject these cruel cuts. Thanks.