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Statement

SNAP Rule is 'One More Attack on Struggling Families from an Administration Without Heart or Compassion'

December 20, 2018
Youth & Family Justice, Federal Budget

Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996

Statement from leaders of MomsRising, an online and on-the-ground organization of more than one million mothers and their families, on the proposed SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) rule released this morning:

“As President Trump prepares to leave for another country club vacation at Mar-a-Lago, his parting shot is a brazen, heartless attempt to do through regulation what legislators would not: Make it harder for hungry families to get the food and nutrition they need.

“Slashing food assistance for more than 750,000 people who are struggling to find stable work would be a punishing blow that causes very real harm to moms and children across the country. If it is adopted, the proposed rule would bring more hunger to America – more children without the food they need to learn, be healthy and grow; and more families forced to make impossible choices between food and shelter.

“This rule is one more attack on struggling families from an administration without heart or compassion. The tax bill Republicans passed last year was a huge windfall for ultra-wealthy individuals and mega-corporations; now the Trump administration is asking struggling families to pay the price. The moms of America will not stand for it.”

     --Statement of Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Executive Director and CEO, MomsRising

“The ink on the bipartisan Farm Bill isn’t even dry yet, but the Trump administration is wasting no time overreaching and forcing its unkind, unnecessary, harmful policies on already-struggling Americans. In Donald Trump’s America, the rich get richer and struggling families suffer. Withholding food assistance from people who are searching for stable work won’t help them get good jobs. It will simply deepen their struggles.

“States with high unemployment rates need the flexibility to issue waivers that exempt select people from the requirement that they obtain steady employment in order to receive food stamps. Not every family has felt the recovery from a still-unstable economy. SNAP is often the program standing between hunger and food.

“This rule would cause real harm. It must not take effect, and the moms of America will continue to speak out against policies like this that punish those who are just trying to get by.”

     -- Elyssa Koidin Schmier, Senior Campaign Director, National Early Learning and Budget, MomsRising

 

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.