Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins’ vision to cut more benefits from poor people will soon take effect.
Starting Jan. 1, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits will no longer cover certain sugary foods or drinks. And while the move might seem like it’s simply meant to encourage people to make healthier choices, there are significant issues with the new restrictions.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins
The ban itself is unclear on which specific products SNAP recipients will no longer be able to purchase. In turn, the 18 states participating in the ban have varying definitions for what falls under this category.
While the restrictions in West Virginia will only apply to soda, Arkansas will restrict the purchase of fruit or vegetable juices that are less than 50% juice.
In addition to inconsistent and confusing restrictions, Marlene Schwartz, director of the University of Connecticut’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health, wrote in a 2017 study that this restrictive approach might have a detrimental effect.
By placing more restrictions on foods, Schwartz said, the stigma surrounding government assistance will worsen—which might prevent people who need it from using it.
Even Rollins’ very own Agriculture Department published findings stating that a restrictive approach to SNAP has adverse effects.
But the Trump administration has stood behind shaming the poor and their use of taxpayer dollars as a way to limit access.
“We cannot continue a system that forces taxpayers to fund programs that make people sick and then pay a second time to treat the illnesses those very programs help create,” Kennedy said in a statement.
This narrative is commonly used to justify cutting social programs. Through its “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” the Trump administration has sought to limit access to SNAP benefits through work requirements and immigration status.
Tatiana Schlossberg, Kennedy’s late cousin, advocated against his work with the Department of Health and Human Services.
But it’s also targeting states with error rates higher than 6%, which could result in more people losing their SNAP benefits because their states can’t foot the bill without federal assistance.
All of these incoming changes are part of Kennedy’s mission to “Make America Healthy Again,” but he keeps running into issues with his approach to Americans’ health.
Even his own cousin Tatiana Schlossberg, who died Tuesday from acute myeloid leukemia, has been openly critical of Kennedy’s mishandling of public health.
“I watched from my hospital bed as [Kennedy], in the face of logic and common sense, was confirmed for the [HHS secretary] position, despite never having worked in medicine, public health, or the government,” she wrote in a New Yorker essay in November. “Suddenly, the health care system on which I relied felt strained, shaky.”
The full impacts of these SNAP restrictions remain to be seen. But as the Trump administration makes more cuts, it’s clear that the worst harm will be done to the most vulnerable communities.
