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CNN
30-07-2025
- Health
- CNN
Food assistance benefits are tied to slower cognitive decline in older adults, new study suggests
For older adults who may otherwise be food-insecure, participating in food assistance benefits may be associated with a slower cognitive decline as they age, according to new research. Compared with eligible people who were not participating in the US Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, SNAP participants showed a slower decline in cognitive function during a 10-year period, essentially maintaining up to three additional years of cognitive health, according to the study presented Wednesday at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Toronto. 'We expected that SNAP might be protective for cognitive health based on prior research linking food insecurity to faster cognitive decline. But what did surprise us was the persistence of the effect over a decade — and the fact that the benefit was equivalent to preserving two to three extra years of cognitive health,' Linlin Da, lead author of the study and a Ph.D. candidate in health services research at the University of Georgia, said in an email. 'This study is important because it shows that supporting basic needs like food access can have long-term benefits for brain health, something not widely recognized,' Da said. 'In a time when we're seeking ways to delay or prevent Alzheimer's disease and related dementia, this suggests that public health and social policy can play a role alongside medical approaches.' It's estimated that nearly 37% of SNAP participants are in households with older adults or people with disabilities, and on average, SNAP participants may receive an estimated $6.16 per day per person in benefits. SNAP, known previously as the Food Stamp Program, helped an average of more than 41 million low-income people in the United States in a typical month last year, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Now, President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act makes the largest cuts to food stamps in the program's 86-year history, jeopardizing assistance for millions of people. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the law will reduce federal spending on SNAP by almost $187 billion over the next decade. Some public health experts worry that while cuts to SNAP would lead to budgetary savings, it also could produce higher rates of food insecurity and poorer health outcomes in the long run, according to the nonprofit KFF, formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation. And some Democratic state leaders are warning about potential consequences. 'During a time when many American families are already struggling, food assistance programs such as SNAP are more essential than ever,' Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said in a news release Tuesday. 'Under the veneer of 'cost savings,' the Trump Administration is slashing benefits and threatening the well-being of hundreds of thousands of Illinoisans, putting their health and welfare at risk. Our state deserves better.' The researchers on the new study, from the University of Georgia, analyzed data on more than 2,000 adults 50 and older across the United States. About half of them were enrolled in SNAP in 2010, and the other half were eligible for SNAP but did not participate in the program. Every two years between 2010 and 2020, the researchers interviewed the study participants to assess their cognition, memory and executive function, including their ability to carry out tasks or to plan. Each person was given a cognitive score based on the assessments. The assessments, which have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, showed that those enrolled in SNAP had a slower rate of cognitive decline in cognition, memory and executive function during the 10-year period. 'The decline in global cognitive function was 0.10 points slower per year for SNAP participants compared to nonparticipants,' Da said. 'While that may sound small, over a 10-year period, this adds up to about one full point of preserved cognition. To put it in clinical terms, this slower decline could delay the onset of mild cognitive impairment by nearly a decade for someone starting at a healthy cognitive baseline.' When the researchers analyzed their data by race and ethnicity, they found that there was a slightly faster decline in cognition and memory among Black and Hispanic adults compared with White adults, but no significant racial differences were observed for executive function. However, SNAP participation was linked with much stronger cognitive benefits and slower decline among the White adults. As a 10-year study, the new research covers 'a good length of time' to determine the benefits of diet and SNAP as associated with cognitive health, Dr. Shae Datta, a neurologist at NYU Langone Health and brand partner for the supplement company Qunol, said in an email. 'Having the means to buy nutritious food is important for preventing cognitive decline,' said Datta, who was not involved in the new study. 'This study suggested that SNAP participation, or any nutritional support program can delay the onset of cognitive impairment or dementia. Translating in a greater ability to manage their activities of daily living and remain independent longer.' While the new study suggests only an association between SNAP participation and cognitive decline, rather than a causal relationship, the researchers emphasized that not having adequate access to food can negatively affect cognitive function. SNAP participation may help improve someone's nutritional intake, thus potentially slowing cognitive decline. 'When people don't have access to healthy nutrition programs, they may have inadequate intake of, for example, brain healthy fats, omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in fish, fish like lake trout, mackerel, herring, albacore tuna, sardines and wild salmon,' said preventive neurologist Dr. Richard Isaacson, director of research at the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Florida, who was not involved in the new study. 'Having a balanced diet can neutralize a lot of the risk elements related to developing cognitive decline. The way that I would think about this is, the Mediterranean-style diet is by far the most evidence-based when it comes to reducing the risk of cognitive decline,' Isaacson said. 'But a Mediterranean-style diet is rich in green, leafy vegetables. Vegetables are expensive. Fatty fish are expensive. So nutrition assistance programs can really fill the gap.' A Mediterranean-style diet includes mostly vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts, lentils, whole grains and healthy fats, such as extra virgin olive oil and avocados. The diet may include a moderate amount of natural cheese and yogurt, but it is low in red meat and sugar. Overall, the potential health benefits of participating in a food assistance program for an older adult who otherwise would be food-insecure are based on whether that adult uses the program to access brain healthy foods while taking other steps to maintain cognitive health, said Isaacson, who established one of the first Alzheimer's prevention clinics in the United States. 'You can't eat a magic blueberry and think you're going to prevent Alzheimer's disease,' he said. 'Healthy nutrition, exercising on a regular basis, seeing a doctor regularly to control blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, vascular risk factors – you need to do all of these different things to have the most benefit.' CNN's Nathaniel Meyersohn contributed to this report.
22-07-2025
- Business
McDowell County, West Virginia, birthplace of food stamps, faces a disappearing safety net
For nonprofits in McDowell County, West Virginia, the federal cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act threaten a lifeline. Many of McDowell's 17,000 residents rely on federal programs and the nonprofits they fund to get by. The county's tax base and population have significantly declined since 1950, when McDowell was the top coal-producing county in the nation and had about 100,000 residents. Now, more than half the children in the county receive federal Children's Health Insurance Program benefits, and about one-third of seniors are on Medicaid, the federal health insurance program for the poor. Decades after the Kennedy administration made the county a first test of food stamps, nearly half the county's residents receive supplemental nutrition assistance, or SNAP, the Food Stamp Program's successor. The strains created by new eligibility restrictions on SNAP as a result of the passage of President Trump's domestic policy bill will be especially dire in places like McDowell County, where more than one-third of the population lives below the federal poverty line, said Rosemary Ketchum, executive director of the West Virginia Nonprofit Association. 'These federal cuts are starving people,' she said. Since the interruption in federal support tied to President Trump's January executive orders barring grants related to 'gender ideology'; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and environmental justice, Ketchum said many of the 9,000 or so nonprofits in her state have laid off staff. Others, she said, are dipping into whatever reserves they have to pay their employees. Those reserves are slim, if they exist at all. Taken together, the seven nonprofits that receive federal grants in McDowell County run on a 3 percent operating margin, according to data tabulated by the Urban Institute's National Center for Charitable Statistics. If all federal support disappeared, the center found, all the county's nonprofits would be at risk of going under unless other funding was provided. In a poor state like West Virginia, which is already facing a budget deficit and lacks the legions of philanthropic donors who got rich on Wall Street or in Silicon Valley, nonprofits don't have a plan B, said Kathy Gentry, executive director of Safe Housing and Economic Development, or SHED, a McDowell nonprofit housing provider. The nonprofit's clients, many of whom are elderly or disabled, rely on U.S. Housing and Urban Development support to cover the rent at the 94 housing units SHED manages. Gentry's pay was temporarily cut for six weeks this spring because part of her salary comes from a HUD capacity-building grant that the administration deemed at cross-purposes with Trump's anti-DEI policy agenda. Her full paycheck resumed, but Gentry worries further cuts will force her to lay off staff. Already the nonprofit operates at a loss. In its 2023 tax filing, the most recent available, SHED's $663,000 in expenses outstripped its revenue by nearly $200,000. 'We're in a quandary here — all nonprofits are,' Gentry said. 'Are we going to exist? Will we have to dissolve?' Since 2015, Heidi Binko and her team at the Just Transition Fund have worked with economic development agencies and nonprofits in areas where the coal industry once flourished. That can mean helping a local organization identify or write a grant or provide a matching grant. The fund was created by the Rockefeller Family Foundation and Appalachian Funders Network to help coal towns capture some of the dollars provided in the 2015 Clean Power Plan, or POWER Act, passed during the Obama administration. Since then, the fund says it has helped coal communities in West Virginia and throughout the nation secure more than $2 billion in federal grants. Binko hopes the fund can continue to attract federal resources to towns with high poverty rates. 'There are still federal dollars available,' she said. 'They haven't all been zeroed out.' The recently passed domestic policy bill, for instance, contains $50 billion in health care grants over 10 years for rural providers, though it is unclear whether that money will keep hospitals and clinics that rely on Medicaid dollars afloat. Two hallmarks of the Biden administration's infrastructure and stimulus acts — transitioning away from a carbon-based economy and providing federal resources among different populations equitably — are not a focus of the Trump plan. As a result, Binko fears recent progress will be dimmed. For instance, Generation West Virginia, a Just Transition Fund grantee worked with McDowell County to apply for funds from the Biden administration's Digital Equity Act to run an elementary and middle school digital literacy program. Programs under the act were terminated in May. The cancellation of the Digital Equity Act is a setback for McDowell, where 20 percent of households don't have a broadband internet connection, according to a Generation West Virginia report. Other, more basic infrastructure is lacking in the county. According to DigDeep, a nonprofit that assists with clean water access and wastewater systems and is primarily funded by private institutions, corporate partners and grassroots donations, there may be hundreds of people in the county without a dependable water supply. The exact number is unknown because information on whether existing water systems provide safe drinking water is not gathered by the U.S. Census. DigDeep works with the McDowell Public Service District utility provider to identify residents who need a water hookup and helps secure grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's rural development program to extend water trunk lines to hard-to-reach areas. In some cases, the nonprofit helps pay to connect the federally supported water lines directly to people's homes. It is also helping to install wastewater treatment facilities to more than 400 residents who either have inadequate systems or flush waste into nearby creeks. The water supply throughout the county is unreliable because of the area's close historical ties to the rise and fall of the coal economy, said George McGraw, DigDeep's chief executive. When coal operations came to McDowell, businesses operated in a 'closed loop' environment. Coal companies paid workers to build and work in the mines, they owned the houses where miners lived, and they built the water lines that served those houses, McGraw said. When the coal industry began to peter out, companies exited the county, leaving behind an aging system of pipes and drains. To secure water in the county today, hundreds of people fill plastic jugs from roadside springs or mine shafts, McGraw said. To get drinking water, they may use the bathroom in a store, a neighbor's house, or a school. DigDeep has several projects in the planning stages in McDowell. But the Trump USDA budget proposal would chop the rural water program by two-thirds, meaning some public works projects may never get completed. Someone else will have to foot the bill or the system will continue to crumble, leaving many people in McDowell County without a basic necessity. 'It's not like the burden goes away,' McGraw said. 'The burden just shifts, and utilities are forced to raise rates on customers, many of whom are below the poverty line.'
San Francisco Chronicle
22-07-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
McDowell County, West Virginia, birthplace of food stamps, faces a disappearing safety net
For nonprofits in McDowell County, West Virginia, the federal cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act threaten a lifeline. Many of McDowell's 17,000 residents rely on federal programs and the nonprofits they fund to get by. The county's tax base and population have significantly declined since 1950, when McDowell was the top coal-producing county in the nation and had about 100,000 residents. Now, more than half the children in the county receive federal Children's Health Insurance Program benefits, and about one-third of seniors are on Medicaid, the federal health insurance program for the poor. Decades after the Kennedy administration made the county a first test of food stamps, nearly half the county's residents receive supplemental nutrition assistance, or SNAP, the Food Stamp Program's successor. The strains created by new eligibility restrictions on SNAP as a result of the passage of President Trump's domestic policy bill will be especially dire in places like McDowell County, where more than one-third of the population lives below the federal poverty line, said Rosemary Ketchum, executive director of the West Virginia Nonprofit Association. 'These federal cuts are starving people,' she said. Since the interruption in federal support tied to President Trump's January executive orders barring grants related to 'gender ideology'; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and environmental justice, Ketchum said many of the 9,000 or so nonprofits in her state have laid off staff. Others, she said, are dipping into whatever reserves they have to pay their employees. Those reserves are slim, if they exist at all. Taken together, the seven nonprofits that receive federal grants in McDowell County run on a 3 percent operating margin, according to data tabulated by the Urban Institute's National Center for Charitable Statistics. If all federal support disappeared, the center found, all the county's nonprofits would be at risk of going under unless other funding was provided. No Plan B In a poor state like West Virginia, which is already facing a budget deficit and lacks the legions of philanthropic donors who got rich on Wall Street or in Silicon Valley, nonprofits don't have a plan B, said Kathy Gentry, executive director of Safe Housing and Economic Development, or SHED, a McDowell nonprofit housing provider. The nonprofit's clients, many of whom are elderly or disabled, rely on U.S. Housing and Urban Development support to cover the rent at the 94 housing units SHED manages. Gentry's pay was temporarily cut for six weeks this spring because part of her salary comes from a HUD capacity-building grant that the administration deemed at cross-purposes with Trump's anti-DEI policy agenda. Her full paycheck resumed, but Gentry worries further cuts will force her to lay off staff. Already the nonprofit operates at a loss. In its 2023 tax filing, the most recent available, SHED's $663,000 in expenses outstripped its revenue by nearly $200,000. 'We're in a quandary here — all nonprofits are,' Gentry said. 'Are we going to exist? Will we have to dissolve?' Health care and internet access Since 2015, Heidi Binko and her team at the Just Transition Fund have worked with economic development agencies and nonprofits in areas where the coal industry once flourished. That can mean helping a local organization identify or write a grant or provide a matching grant. The fund was created by the Rockefeller Family Foundation and Appalachian Funders Network to help coal towns capture some of the dollars provided in the 2015 Clean Power Plan, or POWER Act, passed during the Obama administration. Since then, the fund says it has helped coal communities in West Virginia and throughout the nation secure more than $2 billion in federal grants. Binko hopes the fund can continue to attract federal resources to towns with high poverty rates. 'There are still federal dollars available,' she said. 'They haven't all been zeroed out.' The recently passed domestic policy bill, for instance, contains $50 billion in health care grants over 10 years for rural providers, though it is unclear whether that money will keep hospitals and clinics that rely on Medicaid dollars afloat. Two hallmarks of the Biden administration's infrastructure and stimulus acts — transitioning away from a carbon-based economy and providing federal resources among different populations equitably — are not a focus of the Trump plan. As a result, Binko fears recent progress will be dimmed. For instance, Generation West Virginia, a Just Transition Fund grantee worked with McDowell County to apply for funds from the Biden administration's Digital Equity Act to run an elementary and middle school digital literacy program. Programs under the act were terminated in May. The cancellation of the Digital Equity Act is a setback for McDowell, where 20 percent of households don't have a broadband internet connection, according to a Generation West Virginia report. Clean water Other, more basic infrastructure is lacking in the county. According to DigDeep, a nonprofit that assists with clean water access and wastewater systems and is primarily funded by private institutions, corporate partners and grassroots donations, there may be hundreds of people in the county without a dependable water supply. The exact number is unknown because information on whether existing water systems provide safe drinking water is not gathered by the U.S. Census. DigDeep works with the McDowell Public Service District utility provider to identify residents who need a water hookup and helps secure grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's rural development program to extend water trunk lines to hard-to-reach areas. In some cases, the nonprofit helps pay to connect the federally supported water lines directly to people's homes. It is also helping to install wastewater treatment facilities to more than 400 residents who either have inadequate systems or flush waste into nearby creeks. The water supply throughout the county is unreliable because of the area's close historical ties to the rise and fall of the coal economy, said George McGraw, DigDeep's chief executive. When coal operations came to McDowell, businesses operated in a 'closed loop' environment. Coal companies paid workers to build and work in the mines, they owned the houses where miners lived, and they built the water lines that served those houses, McGraw said. When the coal industry began to peter out, companies exited the county, leaving behind an aging system of pipes and drains. To secure water in the county today, hundreds of people fill plastic jugs from roadside springs or mine shafts, McGraw said. To get drinking water, they may use the bathroom in a store, a neighbor's house, or a school. DigDeep has several projects in the planning stages in McDowell. But the Trump USDA budget proposal would chop the rural water program by two-thirds, meaning some public works projects may never get completed. Someone else will have to foot the bill or the system will continue to crumble, leaving many people in McDowell County without a basic necessity. 'It's not like the burden goes away,' McGraw said. 'The burden just shifts, and utilities are forced to raise rates on customers, many of whom are below the poverty line.'
Winnipeg Free Press
22-07-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
McDowell County, West Virginia, birthplace of food stamps, faces a disappearing safety net
For nonprofits in McDowell County, West Virginia, the federal cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act threaten a lifeline. Many of McDowell's 17,000 residents rely on federal programs and the nonprofits they fund to get by. The county's tax base and population have significantly declined since 1950, when McDowell was the top coal-producing county in the nation and had about 100,000 residents. Now, more than half the children in the county receive federal Children's Health Insurance Program benefits, and about one-third of seniors are on Medicaid, the federal health insurance program for the poor. Decades after the Kennedy administration made the county a first test of food stamps, nearly half the county's residents receive supplemental nutrition assistance, or SNAP, the Food Stamp Program's successor. The strains created by new eligibility restrictions on SNAP as a result of the passage of President Trump's domestic policy bill will be especially dire in places like McDowell County, where more than one-third of the population lives below the federal poverty line, said Rosemary Ketchum, executive director of the West Virginia Nonprofit Association. 'These federal cuts are starving people,' she said. Since the interruption in federal support tied to President Trump's January executive orders barring grants related to 'gender ideology'; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and environmental justice, Ketchum said many of the 9,000 or so nonprofits in her state have laid off staff. Others, she said, are dipping into whatever reserves they have to pay their employees. Those reserves are slim, if they exist at all. Taken together, the seven nonprofits that receive federal grants in McDowell County run on a 3 percent operating margin, according to data tabulated by the Urban Institute's National Center for Charitable Statistics. If all federal support disappeared, the center found, all the county's nonprofits would be at risk of going under unless other funding was provided. No Plan B In a poor state like West Virginia, which is already facing a budget deficit and lacks the legions of philanthropic donors who got rich on Wall Street or in Silicon Valley, nonprofits don't have a plan B, said Kathy Gentry, executive director of Safe Housing and Economic Development, or SHED, a McDowell nonprofit housing provider. The nonprofit's clients, many of whom are elderly or disabled, rely on U.S. Housing and Urban Development support to cover the rent at the 94 housing units SHED manages. Gentry's pay was temporarily cut for six weeks this spring because part of her salary comes from a HUD capacity-building grant that the administration deemed at cross-purposes with Trump's anti-DEI policy agenda. Her full paycheck resumed, but Gentry worries further cuts will force her to lay off staff. Already the nonprofit operates at a loss. In its 2023 tax filing, the most recent available, SHED's $663,000 in expenses outstripped its revenue by nearly $200,000. 'We're in a quandary here — all nonprofits are,' Gentry said. 'Are we going to exist? Will we have to dissolve?' Health care and internet access Since 2015, Heidi Binko and her team at the Just Transition Fund have worked with economic development agencies and nonprofits in areas where the coal industry once flourished. That can mean helping a local organization identify or write a grant or provide a matching grant. The fund was created by the Rockefeller Family Foundation and Appalachian Funders Network to help coal towns capture some of the dollars provided in the 2015 Clean Power Plan, or POWER Act, passed during the Obama administration. Since then, the fund says it has helped coal communities in West Virginia and throughout the nation secure more than $2 billion in federal grants. Binko hopes the fund can continue to attract federal resources to towns with high poverty rates. 'There are still federal dollars available,' she said. 'They haven't all been zeroed out.' The recently passed domestic policy bill, for instance, contains $50 billion in health care grants over 10 years for rural providers, though it is unclear whether that money will keep hospitals and clinics that rely on Medicaid dollars afloat. Two hallmarks of the Biden administration's infrastructure and stimulus acts — transitioning away from a carbon-based economy and providing federal resources among different populations equitably — are not a focus of the Trump plan. As a result, Binko fears recent progress will be dimmed. For instance, Generation West Virginia, a Just Transition Fund grantee worked with McDowell County to apply for funds from the Biden administration's Digital Equity Act to run an elementary and middle school digital literacy program. Programs under the act were terminated in May. The cancellation of the Digital Equity Act is a setback for McDowell, where 20 percent of households don't have a broadband internet connection, according to a Generation West Virginia report. Clean water Other, more basic infrastructure is lacking in the county. According to DigDeep, a nonprofit that assists with clean water access and wastewater systems and is primarily funded by private institutions, corporate partners and grassroots donations, there may be hundreds of people in the county without a dependable water supply. The exact number is unknown because information on whether existing water systems provide safe drinking water is not gathered by the U.S. Census. DigDeep works with the McDowell Public Service District utility provider to identify residents who need a water hookup and helps secure grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's rural development program to extend water trunk lines to hard-to-reach areas. In some cases, the nonprofit helps pay to connect the federally supported water lines directly to people's homes. It is also helping to install wastewater treatment facilities to more than 400 residents who either have inadequate systems or flush waste into nearby creeks. The water supply throughout the county is unreliable because of the area's close historical ties to the rise and fall of the coal economy, said George McGraw, DigDeep's chief executive. When coal operations came to McDowell, businesses operated in a 'closed loop' environment. Coal companies paid workers to build and work in the mines, they owned the houses where miners lived, and they built the water lines that served those houses, McGraw said. When the coal industry began to peter out, companies exited the county, leaving behind an aging system of pipes and drains. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. To secure water in the county today, hundreds of people fill plastic jugs from roadside springs or mine shafts, McGraw said. To get drinking water, they may use the bathroom in a store, a neighbor's house, or a school. DigDeep has several projects in the planning stages in McDowell. But the Trump USDA budget proposal would chop the rural water program by two-thirds, meaning some public works projects may never get completed. Someone else will have to foot the bill or the system will continue to crumble, leaving many people in McDowell County without a basic necessity. 'It's not like the burden goes away,' McGraw said. 'The burden just shifts, and utilities are forced to raise rates on customers, many of whom are below the poverty line.' ______ Alex Daniels is a senior reporter at the Chronicle of Philanthropy, where you can read the full article. This article was provided to The Associated Press by the Chronicle of Philanthropy as part of a partnership to cover philanthropy and nonprofits supported by the Lilly Endowment. The Chronicle is solely responsible for the content. For all of AP's philanthropy coverage, visit
The Hill
28-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Republicans' mega-bill could make Americans hungry again
This is a large country, and people in different states embrace different customs, cultural preferences and political beliefs. But for all our diversity, every person in every state needs to eat. In recognition of this, America has long treated hunger as a national concern. Unfortunately, a little-understood provision in the budget reconciliation legislation speeding through Congress would change that. Within a few years of its passage, we would likely see a significant number of states with no family food assistance program at all for Americans unable to buy enough food. In the middle of the 20th century, the U.S. Department of Agriculture purchased surplus commodities from farms and distributed them to people in need, wherever they were. When this became unworkable, Congress began converting commodity distributions into food stamps that low-income households could spend in regular supermarkets to buy food for their families. President Richard Nixon saw the benefits of this program and pushed through legislation that made the Food Stamp Program nationwide. In the following decades, the Food Stamp Program was expanded to help more of the working poor and reduced when Congress was trying to cut the deficit. Some of its biggest supporters were Republicans like Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.), Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) as well as Rep. Bill Emerson (R-Mo.). As technology advanced, electronic debit cards replaced the old paper food stamps and the program changed its name to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. But even when Congress has felt the need to cut back on food stamps, it has never departed from the principle that hunger is a national concern. Budget cuts that took effect in New York also took effect in Arkansas. The pending reconciliation bill, however, would change that, making it likely that some of the states that most need food assistance would drop out completely. Both the House-passed bill and the one pending in the Senate would, for the first time, require states to contribute to the cost of food assistance benefits. The percentages in the two versions vary, but the hit would be large. If the final legislation requires states to pay 10 percent, the 10-year cost to states would be almost $90 billion. Poorer states would be especially hard-hit: Alabama would have to pay $1.64 billion, Arkansas would need to come up with $521 million and West Virginia would have to find $536 million in its budget. Because the provision prohibits the federal government from paying its share unless the state pays the required amount, states that are unwilling or unable to produce the required match would have to drop out of SNAP altogether. This is a real possibility. The Federal Reserve and many private forecasters are seeing signs that economic growth is slowing, with a full recession a distinct possibility. Even if we avoid a recession, a slowing economy will reduce states' revenues and drive up the number of people losing their jobs and needing food assistance. At a time when states will be cutting important programs and contemplating unwelcome tax increases just to keep their heads above water, few will have room to absorb tens or hundreds of millions of dollars of new costs to maintain existing food assistance programs. Once food assistance ceases to be available in some states for families regardless of need, we will have lost something important about what makes us a country. The consequences will be severe indeed. Copious research shows that children growing up with inadequate diets do worse in school and have lower lifetime earnings. As some states terminate federal food assistance, voices in neighboring states will advocate for dropping the program as well. Members of Congress from states lacking federal family food assistance will have little reason to support funding for a program operating only in other states. The effects will extend well beyond food assistance. SNAP, along with unemployment insurance, is one of our most important 'automatic stabilizers' that puts more money into the economy as the nation tips into a recession. This is crucial because Congress often takes months to enact stimulus legislation — or fails altogether. A shrunken SNAP will mean less effective stimulus to pull the country out of a downturn, and a SNAP that operates only in some states could contribute to an uneven recovery across the country. Indeed, because all states must balance their budgets even in recessions, declining revenues may force some states to drop out of SNAP at the very moment when families most need help and when the economy most needs a boost. No good reason exists for shifting the costs of SNAP benefits to states. States already spend large amounts to meet human needs ignored by the federal government and even more matching federal contributions for efforts such as Medicaid and child care subsidies. States' revenue streams are less efficient and far more vulnerable to regional and national economic downturns. Suddenly increasing states' costs in federal-state programs is precisely the kind of 'unfunded mandate' that prompted congressional Republicans to enact the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act in 1995 and that led Republicans to criticize the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion. Dumping federal fiscal shortfalls on the states is antithetical to the values of federalism. It is a shameful practice contemplated by policymakers lacking the courage to get the federal government's own fiscal house in order. Congress should drop this cost-shifting provision altogether. At a very minimum, it should ensure that the federal share of food assistance benefits remain available even in states that are unwilling or unable to put up hundreds of millions of dollars of their own. David A. Super teaches at Georgetown Law.
