As federal lawmakers continue mulling a GOP tax package proposing to significantly cut safety net programs, several Connecticut officials are calling attention to the potentially damaging impacts on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
SNAP benefits are federally funded, but the state shares half the administrative costs. The proposed measure that could soon get a vote in the House seeks to put more expenses on the states, and create more stringent work requirements to qualify for benefits.
In Connecticut, SNAP helps one in nine residents, or about 391,000 people, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank.
Congressional Republicans said the budget measure is to root out “waste, fraud and abuse.” With SNAP on the chopping block, there’s major concern surrounding cutting back the program, which was first introduced during the Great Depression.
“This benefit exists for a reason,” Department of Social Services Commissioner Andrea Barton Reeves said Tuesday. “Poor, working and low-income families need help and support in order to put groceries in their refrigerators and to feed their children. These are policies that have developed over decades, out of need.”
A new analysis from the Congressional Budget Office said the tax provisions would increase the federal deficit by $3.8 trillion over the decade, while the changes to Medicaid, food stamps and other services would tally $1 trillion in reduced spending.
The lowest-income households in the U.S. would see their resources drop, while the highest ones would see a boost, the CBO report said.
“The situation is dire,” said Planning and Development co-chair Rep. Eleni Kavros DeGraw (D-Avon) alongside the co-chairs of the Human Services Committee. “These are working families who cannot, frankly, live without the support of SNAP.”
The debate in Washington D.C. comes as Feeding America released a new report mapping food insecurity nationwide. It shows hunger in Connecticut has continued to rise since the COVID-19 pandemic. The data, from 2023, shows half a million people in the state were struggling to get the food they needed. That’s an over 10% increase in food insecurity compared to the year before, and a 40% jump since 2020, according to the report.
The most staggering of those numbers, Connecticut Foodshare CEO Jason Jakubowski said, is the rise in food insecurity among older adults and seniors in the state.
Potential cuts to federal safety net programs would put a strain on food banks, Jakubowski said. The nonprofit works with hundreds of partners statewide, and says there’s been more and more demand for food assistance, similar to during the peak of the pandemic.
Kavros DeGraw is among the bipartisan group of lawmakers who have pushed for an extra $10 million in the state’s biennial budget to fund food purchasing at Foodshare, which gets $850,000 in state funding annually.
Gov. Ned Lamont’s proposed budget, crafted before federal cuts were introduced, set aside an extra $900,000 for Connecticut Foodshare beginning July 2026. The Appropriations Committee’s budget released last month included $2.5 million beginning July 2025, doubling that amount the following year.
Now legislative leaders are working to finalize the state budget before the June 4 deadline.
House Speaker Matt Ritter has said state lawmakers will need to address the bulk of the Trump administration’s cuts in a special session later this year.
However, Jakubowski maintains that, “for every meal that a food bank or local food pantry can provide people in need, SNAP can provide 10,” and he said the federal program is a lifeline for residents.
“You'd probably need to give us a billion dollars in order to be able to buy enough food, to be able to get in and out of our facilities, which would then have to be expanded in order to be able to make up the difference,” he said. “It's just not feasible.”
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
