In Brief:
- Some state and federal policymakers want restrictions on food stamp purchases to make sure government funds aren’t used to buy unhealthy foods.
- States would need a waiver from USDA to limit purchases, and 12 have introduced bills to set this in motion.
- This activity is gaining momentum with support from the "Make America Healthy Again" movement, and it encompasses concerns about government spending. Some are concerned that the issue of unhealthy food purchases will justify cuts to food stamp programs.
Republican lawmakers across the country seem to agree that taxpayer-funded “junk food” purchases are harming the health of low-income Americans.
In the last year or so, legislators in 12 states, including Alabama, Kansas, Texas and Louisiana, have introduced legislation that would forbid the purchase of sugary drinks and other unhealthy foods using food stamps (more formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP).
States have responded to encouragement from the federal government, most prominently from Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has publicly stated he does not believe SNAP should pay for sugary processed foods. (“Why are we paying for sugar drinks that are poisoning our kids and giving them diabetes?” he said earlier this month.)
Kennedy doesn’t run SNAP — that falls under the purview of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). But Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has indicated her support of the measures, too, and appears willing to grant waivers states send her way.
Soda bans have at different times been supported by both Democrats and Republicans, but the "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) branding of the latest round has entrenched the pro-ban position firmly with the GOP. A research paper from the Foundation for Government Accountability, advocating for SNAP restrictions under the MAHA umbrella, says that “food stamps are fueling the junk food epidemic.”
Previous efforts have been stymied by lobbying from the beverage industry, says Republican Utah Rep. Kristen Chevrier, who sponsored a version of this type of bill in her state. The bill was signed by Republican Gov. Spencer Cox on March 27.
"Our feeling was that if we can remove some of the empty calories, we're helping to protect the health of our most vulnerable people," Chevrier says.
Chevrier, a longtime advocate for healthy diets who was elected in a December special election, says that bills are gaining traction in this moment because of the clear signals from the federal government that it would support a waiver request.
HHS Secretary Kennedy was in Utah several weeks ago for a press conference, and Chevrier had a chance to speak with him. “He definitely was in support of the waivers for the SNAP funding,” she says.
What the Bills Would Do
The idea of restricting SNAP purchases isn’t new. A decade ago, Stanford researchers published research that concluded that banning sugary drink purchases with food stamps, in combination with refunds for fruit and vegetable purchases, could reduce obesity rates and new cases of type-2 diabetes. The lead author of the paper was Jay Bhattacharya, now the director of the National Institutes of Health.
SNAP is a federal program, and states cannot enforce a ban on purchases themselves. The bills that have been introduced would instruct state agencies to request a waiver from USDA to change food stamp rules in their state. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders submitted a waiver herself. “Taxpayers are subsidizing poor health,” she said at a news conference attended by Agriculture Secretary Rollins. “We’re paying for it on the front end and the back end.”
State bills are in varying stages of the legislative process (see map). Chevrier’s is the first to be enacted.
The Arizona Legislature passed a SNAP bill in early April, but it was later vetoed by Gov. Katie Hobbs. The change would deprive food stamp recipients of purchasing power, she said, and “relegate them to a new underclass of grocery shoppers.”
Arizona state Rep. Leo Biasiucci, who introduced the Arizona legislation, tells Governing he’s surprised that the issue was so divisive. Earlier this year, Biasiucci had introduced a bill banning ultra-processed foods from schools that passed both houses unanimously and was signed in mid-March. SNAP reform was originally proposed by Democrats, says Biasiucci, a Republican. He expected bipartisan support for a soda ban.
"I was shocked to learn that this has turned into a partisan issue," he says. He's not discouraged by how things played out, however. "My goal with this bill was to start the conversation around the SNAP program and demand reform."
But some policy experts believe the issue is more expressly partisan than it might appear at first glance. Marion Nestle, a nutritionist and New York University professor who has also written a book about soda bans, told The Atlantic that though she’s spoken in favor of SNAP soda bans in the past, she believes these latest efforts from Republicans are “a cover for what the real motivation is, which is to cut SNAP.” The Foundation for Government Accountability has also been pushing for policies that would reduce the number of people eligible for SNAP, the outlet reports.
Food stamp recipients gained more purchasing power in 2021, when their benefits were increased 20 percent to take food costs and dietary guidelines into account. This was mandated in a 2018 Farm Bill, but Congress is now considering cutting the $30 billion that funds this increase.
More Than Bans
A 2016 USDA study looked for differences between the food purchases of people using food stamps and other Americans. “There were no major differences in the expenditure patterns of SNAP and non-SNAP households, no matter how the data were categorized,” the research team concluded.
Like other families, SNAP recipients spend about 20 cents of every dollar on sweets (including sweetened beverages) and salty snacks, they found. SNAP is intended to augment the money that low-income families have for grocery purchases, notes Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, an economist at Northwestern University who studies child poverty. Bans could mean that they simply use their own cash for soft drinks.
Some states have seen success from programs that reward healthy purchases. For the past 25 years, the nonprofit The Food Trust has operated a “Food Bucks” program through which food stamp users earn a dollar credit for every dollar they spend on fruits and vegetables. The group is based in Pennsylvania but also operates in New Jersey and California.
“We definitely see that the cost of fruits and vegetables is preventing people from consuming the recommended amount, and from trying new types of fruits and vegetables that they might incorporate in their diet,” says Julia Koprak, who leads the trust’s nutrition incentives program.
Similar programs exist in more than 20 states (see map above).
