[L]awmakers have advanced a bill that aims to provide an administrative safety net for Vermont’s nutrition-assistance program.
The state Senate on Tuesday approved H.271, which addresses fears of possible federal cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — known here as 3SquaresVT.
State officials won’t be able to combat those funding cuts, if they happen. But H.271 sets up a system of notifications, conversations and analysis that could cushion the blow.
“We know that changes happen,” said Karen Vastine, a senior adviser to the commissioner at the state Department for Children and Families. “What is the best way to minimize the impact on Vermonters who need this service? That’s how we came up with this.”
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP, is operated via the U.S. Department of Agriculture and provides financial benefits to tens of millions of income-eligible people nationwide.
Officials say the program is in high demand in Vermont, where it is administered by the Department for Children and Families.
“It’s a very important program that helps meet the food insecurity needs of some 75,000 Vermonters,” said Sen. Debbie Ingram, D-Chittenden. “A little over 10 percent of our Vermont households are food-insecure. About 14 percent of our children live in food-insecure households. And 6.5 percent of our seniors live with food insecurity. So it’s extremely important and provides a very necessary service.”
There are some economic benefits, as well: Hunger Free Vermont says the federally funded program brings more than $110 million into the state annually. That money that helps support stores and farmers, advocates say.
There is concern, however, that the federal government could slash the program’s funding. That was proposed earlier this year by President Donald Trump but hasn’t gotten through Congress.
“What happens at the federal level drastically affects the ability of the Department for Children and Families here in Vermont to continue to assure the most broad and expansive access possible to the program,” said Anore Horton, Hunger Free Vermont’s acting executive director.
Horton said she and others involved in the fight against hunger “really value and appreciate the way that DCF administers this program now.” That includes the department’s communication about potential changes.
But it may not always be that way. And, in spite of the fact that federal officials control the program’s pursestrings, state officials have authority over how 3SquaresVT is administered and how benefits are distributed.
So H.271 says the Department for Children and Families must communicate with the House Human Services Committee, the Senate Health and Welfare Committee and others “within 30 days after any substantive change in the federal law governing SNAP.”
Examples of a substantive change includes any modification that restricts or improves eligibility; inhibits or increases benefit usage; or “increases or reduces barriers or creates or eliminates hardships to access,” the bill says.
Within 90 days of such a change, the Legislature must receive analyses of the department’s anticipated administrative costs and “any impacts on SNAP applicants and participants.”
The bill also says the department’s commissioner “may convene a meeting of interested stakeholders” to talk about proposed changes.
“Right now, while everything is working well … is the time to put something in place that would support a process of informing and analyzing and consulting should these really drastic changes to the program take place in the future,” Horton said.
H.271 passed the House earlier this session. Senators made a minor amendment to the bill’s language before their final vote Tuesday, meaning the bill now will return to the House for concurrence.
