Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families has been sounding the alarm about the deeply harmful cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid, among other programs, that the proposed budget reconciliation bill would bring to children and families in Arkansas. Some of these provisions specific to SNAP include making the state pay for a portion of SNAP benefits for the first time in the program’s history and imposing harsh work requirements for parents and older adults. 

As the bill advanced to the Senate, advocates hoped some of these damaging provisions would be removed. While there were some changes in the recently released Senate version, the bottom line is that this bill, if enacted, will take away basic human needs like food assistance from hundreds of thousands of Arkansans. 

At particular risk will be vulnerable populations like veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and youth who have aged out of foster care. Under current law, individuals within these populations who qualify for SNAP are exempt from the SNAP work requirement. This is because, previously, policymakers recognized that these community members have experienced different — but significant — forms of trauma. For individuals who fall into more than one of these categories, their trauma is compounded. These populations often face other barriers as well, such as lack of access to identifying documents.

Together, these challenges can make it difficult for these community members to work through government bureaucracy to obtain benefits, gain and maintain employment, and meet work requirements. Lawmakers equally recognized that ensuring basic needs for these vulnerable groups — such as providing food assistance through SNAP without the red tape of work requirements — could help move them out of crisis and set them on a path for success.  

The Senate version of the bill provides no such compassion. Rather, it would require veterans, unhoused people, and youth aging out of foster care to work, volunteer, or participate in an approved work program for the full 80 hours a month and regularly report how they are meeting this requirement. If they do not meet these requirements, then they are only eligible for SNAP benefits for three months every three years. Hardly enough time to get on one’s feet, especially when coping with severe trauma and other hardships.  

Let’s remember that these proposed changes to SNAP are designed to help compensate the extended and additional tax cuts the bill also proposes — cuts that will primarily benefit the wealthy. So, an important question to ask is: Will taking away the work exemption from veterans, unhoused people, and youth aging out of foster care save a significant amount of money?  

The average SNAP benefit is a little over $6 per day, per person. Cutting these benefits will do little to compensate for the billions of dollars in tax cuts, but for each person in Arkansas who will lose assistance, this provision cuts off a lifeline to food assistance.  

Let your congressional delegation know that veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and youth aging out of foster care need our support, which includes continuing their exemption from SNAP work requirements and cumbersome work reporting requirements. We urge you to make sure they know about this harmful provision and to vote no to any cuts to SNAP and Medicaid.