Some Southern Tier advocates are apprehensively eyeing proposed cuts to America’s food assistance program as the federal budget makes its way through Congress.
On Tuesday, the Senate passed its version of the federal budget, which featured cuts to social safety net programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Almost 3 million New Yorkers utilize the program according to the State Comptroller's Office.
Both the Senate and House budget proposals add to work requirements for recipients of SNAP, including new rules for parents with children.
The Senate’s version of the budget requires parents with kids over 14 years old to work 80 hours a month in order to receive SNAP benefits. In the House’s earlier version, those requirements reached further, to parents with kids over seven.
It is just one of the differences between the two bills that Congress must reconcile before the budget is ready to hit the president’s desk.
The work requirement proposals are raising alarm bells for Child Development Council CEO Melissa Perry.
She said the Southern Tier’s child care system is already overburdened, with high prices and low availability posing serious challenges for parents seeking daycare.
“We already know that there's not enough care,” Perry said. “So we cannot expect people to work to get these things when, if they have young children, they will not be able to find that care.”
Sarah DeFrank, the Director of Policy at the Southern Tier Food Bank, shared those concerns.
“What this is doing is it's adding in parents with older minor children, which is a huge barrier to success,” DeFrank said.
DeFrank said she’s also concerned about the impacts of additional proposed work requirements for older adults. Currently, work requirements to receive SNAP end at 54, but current proposals would raise the age to 64.
“We know that there are many 64 year olds who are flourishing. There are also many who shouldn't be working,” DeFrank said.
Negotiations on the budget bill are ongoing, with an initial vote on an unamended version of the Senate’s plan failing in the House Wednesday.