“The Trump administration’s latest proposal to cut SNAP would leave millions of people, including struggling families, seniors, and people with disabilities, with less help putting food on the table.”
In its latest potentially devastating attack on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the Trump administration on Tuesday unveiled a proposal that would slash food stamps benefits by $4.5 billion over five years, a move analysts warned would increase hunger for millions of low-income families.
The new plan, announced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), would cut food benefits for nearly 20 percent of the millions of households that use SNAP to afford groceries.
HuffPost‘s Arthur Delaney outlined the administration’s latest rule, which he noted is the USDA’s “third proposed cut to SNAP benefits in the past year”:
Federal law allows households to deduct shelter and utility costs that exceed 50 percent of their net income. By taking the deduction, households can qualify for a bigger benefit. States are allowed to set standard utility allowances to avoid the hassle of figuring out individual households’ specific costs.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is proposing a more uniform national standard, taking the matter out of states’ hands—a similar strategy employed in the two previous proposals to trim SNAP.
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