Federal bill cutting SNAP, social safety nets, passes Senate with tie-breaker vote

President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" passed through the Senate Tuesday, much to the dismay of local food bank operators. House Resolution 1, a mix of tax breaks and spending cuts across the federal government, narrowly passed after former Ohio Senator, Vice President JD Vance broke the tie vote. All the chamber's Democrats, alongside Republican Sens. Thom Tillis, Susan Collins, and Rand Paul, voted against the bill. The vote comes less than two weeks after Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio sounded the alarm for what the bill's $1.2 trillion in cuts, largely to Medicaid and food stamps, will mean to needy families. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits provide food assistance to low-income households, including those with children and senior citizens. The Congressional Budget Office projects the SNAP cuts alone would total nearly $295 billion over the next decade — with the bill as a whole having the greatest negative impact on the lowest income households through cuts to SNAP, social security benefits and other cash assistance programs. The bill shifts a large portion of SNAP costs to states and institutes more work requirements for those who rely on SNAP benefits by expanding the age up to 64 years old and requiring parents with school-age children to work. The bill requires states to share in the program's cost based on their error rates — or the amount of times a beneficiary received the wrong amount of SNAP funds. Based on those rates, released Monday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Ohio would be responsible for nearly $400 million each year, according to the Ohio Association of Foodbanks. "With state budgets already stretched thin, this would force local policymakers to make painful decisions and leave more families without the support that helps communities thrive," Joree Novotny, Ohio Association of Foodbanks executive director, said in a news release. "It would put SNAP benefits at risk for every vulnerable, eligible person." In Lorain County, Second Harvest Food Bank CEO Julie Chase-Morefield said the language in HR 1 is "what we've been fearing all along." "These significant cuts are going to see vulnerable populations who don't have other resources cut off from food resources that create stability for families," she said. "It just fundamentally changes the program and eventually we anticipate it's going to mean more people at food pantries. Which is not good for anyone." SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, has been in place since 2008; but the U.S. has had some form of food assistance available since the late 1930s. She said there are almost 600,000 children in the state who receive SNAP benefits, and many of those are in rural communities. The change will impact not only those families, Chase-Morefield said, but the grocery stores and rural hospitals that serve them. While the federal bill has made its way through Washington, D.C., Ohio's budget was signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine late Monday. That bill includes $24.5 million for the state's food banks — a decrease from what they received in prior budget cycles, Chase-Morefield said. "That's not just a decrease for us, it is for the farmers, grocers and producers we work with," she said, noting that means less revenue going to those farm communities. HR 1 now moves back to the House for reconciliation. Chase-Morefield hopes Ohio's congressional members "think about their constituents" before casting their votes. "We (will) lean in and try to help as many families as possible," she said. "But the reality is we have less food, and there's no way we can make up the cut." Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.