Editor’s note: CHN sent the June 28th letter below with a note to support amendments to protect SNAP to the all members of the U.S Senate on June 30, 2025.

Dear Senator: 

On behalf of the Coalition on Human Needs, I strongly urge you to reject the Senate budget reconciliation package before you this weekend. This letter focuses on the deep cuts outlined by the Senate Agriculture Committee in their revised proposal along with our overarching concerns about additional cuts to basic needs programs. We outline many of our reasons for opposing this package below.  

The Coalition on Human Needs is made up of human service providers, faith groups, policy experts, and civil rights, labor, and other organizations concerned with meeting the needs of people with low incomes. We strongly opposed the House budget reconciliation package, and now also oppose the Senate package given the historic cuts to SNAP and high likelihood the overall package will raise costs and take other assistance from people with low incomes with harsh reductions in Medicaid and the ACA, the Child Tax Credit, and other human needs programs.  

The Senate Agriculture Committee proposal will cut $186 billion from SNAP, the largest cut to SNAP in history, as part of a budget package that guts basic needs programs. Millions of Americans are at risk of losing SNAP – and millions more will see benefits reduced, making it harder to put food on the table.  

At a time that many in communities across the country are struggling with the high cost of living, SNAP provides many of our neighbors, including children, seniors, people with disabilities, and others with lower incomes with vital food benefits to purchase groceries from local food retailers. It serves people of all ages, staves off hunger, promotes well-being, and serves people in every state (see also state numbers including the numbers of children and people in rural areas who participate in the program). SNAP provides much more than just food assistance: It is a critical support system that promotes economic well-being and better health outcomes. The program plays a vital role in addressing hunger, reducing health care costs, and improving the long-term prospects of households with low incomes, including the one in five beneficiaries who are children. SNAP has been shown to improve student performance and allows families to maintain healthy diets, which in turn leads to long-term positive health outcomes for children and adults alike. 

The Coalition on Human Needs is alarmed about the inclusion of a new and radical proposal to shift the cost of SNAP benefits to the states for the first time that remains fundamentally unaltered in this revised text– at a minimum cost of 5 percent for almost every state based on the history of the state’s error rates (which measures overpayments AND underpayments) but likely much larger for many more. By forcing most states to pay 5-15 percent of the federal funding for SNAP benefits going to families in the state, many states will be forced to make cuts to SNAP or other programs. Still worse, states could opt out of participating in SNAP completely (an even bigger risk during economic downturns, just when more families are at risk of hunger), undermining the longstanding bipartisan commitment to address hunger no matter what state hungry people call home. It is critical to recognize that error rates are not “fraud,” and states are required to constantly review data during which they recognize overpayments that are then recouped in subsequent benefit allotments (more from USDA on their quality control processes). These overpayments are already being corrected. This reconciliation proposal is punitive and unhelpful, particularly when combined with the reduced federal share of administrative costs needed to support efficient administration. Attempts to rely on “waiver authority” do not address our fundamental concerns with this proposal, and we urge policymakers to reject this attempt to mask the true harm of this proposal. 

Deep cuts to SNAP including massive cost shifts to states can have ripple effects and far-reaching unintended consequences. For example, this past week Gov. Abbott of Texas vetoed funding for summer feeding programs because of fears and uncertainty around the additional cost-burden due to this budget package (for more, see: FRAC Warns Cuts to SNAP Will Negatively Impact Child Nutrition Programs). State investments in other basic needs programs – K-12 education, mental health and substance abuse services, child welfare, public safety, and much more – could be on the chopping block with this structural change to SNAP. We also want to note that cuts to Medicaid and SNAP could mean 7.5 million children lose access to school meals and families with young children lose access to WIC. 

The Senate Agriculture Committee proposal also takes away SNAP benefits from unemployed workers and their whole families through harsher time limits. For the first time, 900,000 parents living in every state with children over 13 years old are at risk of losing SNAP after just 3 months – which means less food on the table for families with 900,000 school-aged children nationwide, including many children from your state. One in 8 SNAP recipients is at risk of losing food assistance under these new “job loss penalties” that will apply to caregivers and 900,00 adults aged 55-64 nationwide for the first time, including many older adults from your state. The Senate proposal even removes exemptions for 270,000 veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and former foster youth put in place in the 2023 debt ceiling deal. To understand what’s at stake with this change, we urge you to read this new op-ed in The Hill along with this letter signed by over 170 organizations opposing the removal of these exemptions in the Senate bill. Making it tougher for people including caregivers and their families facing job loss or unemployment to meet their basic needs does not help people find jobs and instead makes it more difficult for people to find work, especially in rural areas and other places in a time of economic uncertainty. It is of great concern that many eligible families will lose SNAP because of red tape burdens such as misdirected notices, language or literacy barriers, and inability to get help through office call centers, and people with conditions like severe pain, fatigue, or mental illness may not qualify as ‘disabled enough’ to be exempted from these new work requirements.  

Also breaking a longstanding bipartisan tradition, the Senate Agriculture Committee proposal bars lawfully present refugees, asylees, victims of trafficking and domestic violence, and others from receiving SNAP, policies in place dating from 1996. Current policy limits eligibility for SNAP to “qualified immigrants” as defined under PRWORA. Adults who are qualified immigrants are generally subject to a five-year waiting period before they can access SNAP, but the five-year bar does not apply to children, refugees and certain other humanitarian immigrants. The bill would limit eligibility for SNAP to citizens and LPRs/green card holders. The five-year bar for adults would remain. All other immigrants, including humanitarian immigrants, would be ineligible, and CBO estimates 100,000-250,000 people, including an estimated 50,000 children, would lose food benefits entirely – and this move to take food assistance away from legal immigrants will reduce the amount of nutrition for their families, which often include U.S. citizen children.  

We all know that many are struggling with higher food costs, but the Senate Agriculture Committee draft makes it tougher for families to deal with affording groceries by taking away future Thrifty Food Plan adjustments to keep pace with updated nutritional information. By restricting future updates to the Thrifty Food Plan — which is used to determine SNAP benefit amounts – the Senate Agriculture proposal would hurt everyone receiving SNAP benefits, 41 million people in 2024. SNAP benefits now average only $6.20 per person per day. Making it harder to adjust SNAP benefits based on the cost of an updated nutritious food package (and what many families experiencing in their local grocery stores) will make it even tougher for families to put food on the table.  

Deep cuts will have a ripple effect across services, Overall, reduced SNAP benefits would hurt the broader economy, could lead to a loss of jobs in your state, and harm retailers in every county in your District. Food retailers, including grocery stores and farmers’ markets, depend on SNAP dollars to stay afloat. In areas where food retailers are already struggling, any reduction in SNAP benefits would have a harsh impact on businesses and the local economy. Food banks, pantries, and soup kitchens are reporting high demand for assistance. We all know the cost of food is high. While emergency food programs help, they only provide one meal for every nine meals that SNAP supplies. These emergency food providers cannot make up for the scope of this SNAP cut. Some of the proposals to set limits to the SNAP program could result in waiting lists while further straining food banks.   

Recent polling shows widespread opposition to cutting SNAP along with other basic needs programs, with 4 out of 5 registered voters including nearly 60% of Republicans, 88% of Independents, and 92% of Democrats opposing cuts to Medicaid and SNAP. Many of the millions of families who will lose access to SNAP or face higher grocery costs given the reduction in their family’s benefits are likely to also lose health coverage given the overall impact of the Senate reconciliation text will be similar to the House reconciliation package, which CBO estimates leaves 16 million without health coverage, with the largest cut to Medicaid in history.  

Approximately 1 in 3 children nationwide, living in communities across the country, would not receive the expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC) because their families make TOO LITTLE money―an average of $23,000 a year – and over 2.6 million citizen children (see data on how many children from your state) along with 1.3 million children with Individual Tax Identification Numbers lose out on the CTC altogether. Without adequate funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to ensure the agency has the ability to protect consumers by stopping unfair, deceptive, and abusive practices and enforcing consumer protection and civil rights laws, more families could struggle to make ends meet. And many families will grapple with higher energy costs, which will disproportionately hurt people with low incomes, with rollbacks in IRA clean energy programs.  

These cuts to SNAP and other basic needs programs will be used partly for seizures of people without due process and family separation, border enforcement, detention, and deportation of immigrants, many of whom have legal status the Trump Administration is now attempting to overturn. These new policies are wasteful, inhumane, and destructive to our communities and economy. Unprecedented levels of funding for immigration enforcement, which in conjunction with the rescinding of the sensitive locations guidance will cause immigrants to fear participating in society and allow more ICE raids at hospitals, homeless shelters, food pantries and other social service locations. One in four children in the U.S. has an immigrant parent and immigrants paid $651 billion in taxes. Immigrants work disproportionately in in-demand industries, such as agriculture, construction, and long-term care. These attacks harm the country’s badly needed workforce – and our overall economy and society. 

We note that millions of people with low incomes will lose access to basic needs programs all to give tax breaks that primarily benefit the wealthy and corporations. Just one example: the cost of exempting even more multi-million-dollar estates from the estate tax is estimated at $200 billion, roughly the same as the draconian cuts to SNAP. We cannot keep allowing the passage of these unfair tax policies that disproportionately benefit the wealthy while making low-income and vulnerable communities suffer, including by taking food assistance and health care away from millions. 

Many families are being squeezed by rising prices — and this gets worse if we unexpectedly fall on tough times. We know that the cuts and even harsher paperwork requirements will deny food assistance along with health care and other basic needs to people who need it – including those who are eligible for the program. Families are frightened they will lose their ability to feed their children through deep cuts to SNAP in the Agriculture Committee’s portion of this package. We are deeply concerned that the combination of uncertainty over tariffs and deep cuts to food assistance and health care will increase the number of families struggling to make ends meet, who will face the loss of jobs, rising prices, and signs of economic downturn.  

When families suffer economic reverses, smart, targeted support can keep people in their homes, children fed and in school, disabled veterans cared for, and workers on the job. We all want a more efficient government. But cutting the heart out of basic needs programs including SNAP and Medicaid doesn’t eliminate fraud — it denies help and creates bigger problems down the road, shifting the burden to service providers, local governments, and taxpayers, and will lead to higher costs and more strain on American taxpayers.  

In summary, families and communities will feel the compounding impact of cuts to SNAP, Medicaid, and other health assistance along with other basic needs programs – making the combined budget package even more reckless. That’s not good for our society or economy. Now more than ever, it’s critical that the Senate acts to protect health care, nutrition, and other essential services that help millions of families meet their basic needs. We should strengthen support for these programs — not take them away.   

It is not too late to change course. We lament the rushed nature of deliberation on this mammoth budget proposal – and the dangers of fast-tracking huge budget legislation without time for Senators and their staff to understand how extreme and damaging structural program changes and historic cuts to SNAP plus Medicaid and other health assistance will inflict unprecedented harms. We strongly urge you to reject the Senate budget package based on this Agriculture Committee’s text, as well as its other destructive cuts and inequitable tax policies, and urge Leadership along with colleagues to instead protect and strengthen basic needs programs. 

Sincerely yours, 

Deborah Weinstein,
Executive Director