Latest news with #SupplementalNutritionAssistancePrograms
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Secretary Rollins signs waivers to amend SNAP in Indiana
HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT) – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins signed waivers to amend the statutory definition of food for purchase for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs (SNAP) in Indiana and Iowa, each commencing in 2026. 'Indiana is proud to be a leader in the Make America Healthy Again initiative, and today Secretary Rollins signed our waiver to return SNAP in Indiana to its intended purpose: nutrition. President Trump and Secretary Rollins are putting our farmers first and supporting American agriculture, and I was proud to join them today,' said Governor Braun. Here's what's in the GOP's 'big, beautiful bill' Officials say prior to these waivers, SNAP recipients could buy anything except alcohol, tobacco, hot foods and personal care products. This action expands the list of products excluded from SNAP purchases in Indiana and Iowa. Indiana's waiver excludes soft drinks and candy, and it will take effect January 1, 2026. According to the USDA, as part of the Make America Healthy Again agenda, this action seeks to reverse disease trends across the country. Prediabetes now affects one in three children ages 12 to 19; 40% of school-aged children and adolescents have at least one chronic condition and 15% of high school students drink one or more sodas daily. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
House GOP Makes Official Its Plan For Devastating Cuts To Medicaid
In announcing their intentions to move forward with a mammoth one bill budget plan that will supposedly sweep up key elements of Donald Trump's fiscal agenda, enact tax cuts and raise the debt ceiling, House Republicans have placed themselves on a collision course with not just members of their own conference but also Senate Republicans. But one thing is clear now that has been clear for months: Medicaid, the program that covers health care costs for low-income Americans, is, by design, the main target of the House GOP's federal spending cuts proposal. Here's a breakdown of the key elements of the budget blueprint, which the House Budget Committee released the text of Wednesday: House Republicans want to enact $4.5 trillion worth of tax cuts over the course of the next decade, some of that will include extending Trump's 2017 tax cuts that provided the most benefits to wealthy Americans. They propose $2 trillion in federal spending cuts. Those spending cuts would offset the cost of the tax cuts, but only partially, meaning the entire proposal would actually end up adding trillions to the national deficit, roughly $3 trillion over 10 years, by the New York Times' calculation. That coupled with plans to raise the debt limit by $4 trillion has fiscal hawks in the House howling, Politico reported. Hardliners in the House Freedom Caucus are reportedly pressing for at least another $500 billion in spending cuts to be outlined in the proposal, plus they want to see work requirements (another GOP word for spending cuts) for Medicaid, food aid benefits and at least one other social safety net program made explicit in the resolution. It is not entirely clear where the $2 trillion in cuts will come from, rather the House Budget Committee is proposing that various committees find enough savings to hit fixed spending reduction targets. So while it is not explicitly stated in the House Budget Committee's document, Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs are the programs most directly in the crosshairs. Here's why: The document charges the House Energy and Commerce Committee with finding $880 billion in ten-year savings, more than half of the total cuts outlined in the proposal. It also directs the House Committee on Agriculture to identify another $230 billion in cuts. The Energy and Commerce Committee oversees Medicaid spending and the Ag panel has jurisdiction over SNAP and other nutritional programs. While House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has pushed work requirement rhetoric in recent days when pressed on the nature of potential impending cuts to Medicaid and other social safety net programs, the magnitude of the spending reductions being proposed means cuts to Medicaid will have to extend far beyond Republicans simply imposing work requirements. That language has become a rhetorical catchall for Republicans for months as they sidestep engaging seriously on the political ramifications of cutting programs for low-income Americans to extend tax cuts for the wealthy. Per HuffPost: Republicans could for example try to introduce a 'per capita cap' or some other mechanism that would limit federal spending on the program going forward, effectively ending the open-ended funding commitment Washington now makes to the states. Republicans could also roll back several reforms designed to make enrollment simpler, especially for children. 'Cuts of the magnitude required of the Energy and Commerce Committee leave little doubt that the Budget Resolution sets the stage for deep cuts to Medicaid,' Allison Orris, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, told HuffPost. 'This is not a budget that protects Medicaid enrollees.' Republicans have been rhetorically creative about shielding their interest in slashing the social safety net for years. And as TPM has reported, even before the new Congress was sworn in this year, House Republicans made it clear Medicaid was on the chopping block, even as Trump vowed to protect Social Security and Medicare at all costs. In the new budgetary blueprint, they're barely hiding the ball. EXCLUSIVE: Judicial Branch Swept Up In Trump-Musk Lease Termination Spree Ep. 360: 'A Great Deal Of Ruin In A Nation' The Musk-Trump Pact Is Sealed In Bizarre Oval Office Circus Trump Says Some Treasury Notes May Not Be Real The Trump Administration Might Just Spend $400 Million on 'Armored' Teslas This obscure law is one reason Trump's agenda keeps losing in court
