A bill making its way through the Texas legislature would bar people from using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits on junk food, including soda, energy drinks, candy, chips and cookies.
Senate Bill 379 would narrow the restrictions on the types of food people can purchase using SNAP funds, formerly known as food stamps.
Republican State Sen. Mayes Middleton, who authored the bill, said he filed the legislation to return to SNAP’s original intent of focusing on nutritional food essential to health and wellbeing. Similar bills with bipartisan support have been introduced in the Texas House — H.B. 3188, proposed by Democrat Rep. Richard Raymond, and H.B. 4970, introduced by GOP Rep. Briscoe Cain.
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The federal government, which provides all the funding for SNAP, currently allows the program to be used for most food items, excluding alcohol, tobacco and hot prepared meals.
A pair of bills were recently introduced in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate that would also prohibit the purchase of junk food using SNAP benefits.
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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has also expressed his desire to restrict ultra-processed foods and additives.
Back in Texas, Republican state lawmakers say S.B. 379 seeks to remove food and drinks with little nutritional value from the government assistance program.
“The [U.S. Department of Agriculture’s] stated purpose for the SNAP program is nutritious food essential to health and wellbeing. Well, junk food certainly doesn’t fit that purpose,” Middleton said, according to FOX 4. “So having those types of foods and drinks qualified under the program is actually contrary to the entire purpose of the SNAP program, the food stamp program.”
Another federal program that provides food assistance for families called the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) already excludes the purchase of junk food items, instead focusing on providing healthy foods and nutrition education.
Meanwhile, critics of the Texas bill argue that people using SNAP should have the freedom to decide what foods are best for their families, including treats for their children or for medical needs such as treating a blood sugar crash, FOX 4 reported. Critics also claim there is a lack of access to grocery stores and say many people on the program rely on convenience stores where there are few healthy food options.
The state’s full Senate debated the bill on Monday. It needs to pass the Upper Chamber before it can be sent to the House.
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