Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives have narrowly passed President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax-cut bill.
The package, which now heads to the Senate, would roll back funding for federal safety net programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP.
Under the current bill, SNAP would receive a funding cut of about $300 billion over the next decade, which experts say would put food benefits at risk. A large portion of the cost would then be shifted to the states.
Elizabeth Keever is the chief resource officer for Harvesters, the regional food bank serving a 27-country area of northwestern Missouri and southeastern Kansas.
She told KCUR's Up To Date that this bill would require Kansas to take on as much as $120 million in added SNAP costs; for Missouri, that number is around $370 million.
Neither of the states have the funds to cover the difference, she said, and organizations like Harvesters won't be able to fill the gap.
"Not only are our lowest-income, most vulnerable — especially seniors, children, veterans — going to be impacted, we will feel it in local economies in a very large way," Keever said. "And I guarantee you we are going to see rural grocery stores continue to fail because of these detrimental cuts."
- Elizabeth Keever, chief resource officer for Harvesters
- Karen Siebert, public policy and advocacy advisor for Harvesters
