Tell PA General Assembly to Stop Attacks on SNAP

From Hunger-Free Pennsylvania (http://www.hungerfreepa.org/):

State legislators have proposed a dangerous bill (H.B. 1659) that would demonize poor families and cut off their access to help with basic needs.

We need your help to stop it in its tracks.

Take action at https://hungerfreepa.salsalabs.org/opposehb1659/index.html.

One in seven Pennsylvanians currently use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to help buy the food they need to survive and feed their families.

The average monthly SNAP benefit totals just $120 per person. This is just $1.34 per meal.

SNAP helps keep food on the table for thousands of low-wage and part-time workers who can’t find steady employment, veterans, people who are homeless, and people struggling with addictions, in addition to children, seniors, and people with disabilities.

House Bill 1659 would prohibit waivers to the SNAP time limit and impose mandatory work requirements for all able-bodied SNAP recipients, except single parents of children under 12. Non-working adults would be sanctioned. Searching for a job would not count.

Time limits and mandatory work requirements sound reasonable … until you know the facts.

• Taking away food assistance will not create work opportunities in areas currently lacking jobs.
• Taking away food assistance will not increase hours for part-time workers who would gladly work more hours.
• Taking away food assistance will not expand access to education or skills training opportunities for low-wage workers to advance to positions with better pay and benefits.
• Taking away food assistance will not address the barriers to work that some individuals face.
• Taking away food assistance will harm health – and lead to greater health care costs.

Proponents of this measure are trying to advance it with bogus claims that SNAP keeps Americans from working. And that mandatory work requirements will save taxpayer money.

They’re wrong on both accounts.

This bill won’t save any state money but instead will cost state taxpayers millions.

Imposing time limits or sanctions on needy Pennsylvanians means these individuals will lose federal SNAP dollars that otherwise would be spent in local supermarkets and farmer’s markets. (Every dollar spent in SNAP generates $1.70 in economic activity.)

There’s more.

• Work requirements are expensive to administer. Pennsylvania pays half the cost of administering the SNAP program — including monitoring work activity. Monitoring compliance with new work requirements would cost millions of dollars we do not have.
• Offering work slots or job training opportunities to individuals who want to work and can’t find jobs would be even more costly.
• The fact is that most SNAP recipients who can work do work.
• The number of SNAP households with workers has been rising for more than a decade, tripling from 2000 to 2015 — suggesting that more working families are turning to SNAP to supplement under-employment, not unemployment.

Let’s be honest: Individuals who lose SNAP benefits still must eat.

Some will turn to families, friends, and neighbors, who will have to stretch their limited dollars further, often reducing their own access to adequate nutrition. Others will turn to local food pantries and soup kitchens, straining their capacity and making it more difficult for them to serve those in need.

HELP US STOP THE ATTACKS ON SNAP.

Contact your representative and tell him/her to oppose H.B. 1659. 

TAKE ACTION TODAY.

What Would H.B. 1659 Do?

• Prohibit the Governor from seeking waivers from the SNAP time limit in areas where there aren’t enough jobs.
• Impose mandatory work requirements for all able-bodied SNAP recipients except single parents of children under 12. Job search would not count. Adults not working, or not working enough hours, would be sanctioned.