Trump Administration Wants To Ban Soda From Food Stamp Program

The Trump administration wants to stop poor people from using federal food benefits for candy or soda.

In an initiative championed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the administration is encouraging states to change Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program rules to disallow certain unhealthy foods.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders leapt at the opportunity this month, filing an official request with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers SNAP, to restrict which foods are eligible for purchase with SNAP debit cards.

“Banning soda and candy from food stamps will remove some of the least-healthy, most-processed foods from the program and encourage low-income Arkansans to eat better,” Sanders said in a joint press release with USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins.

Rollins said the approval process would move swiftly; if approved, the changes would take effect in July of next year. “I encourage more states across the nation to follow the bold lead of states like Arkansas as we Make America Healthy Again,” she said.

Indiana also has asked permission to ban junk foods while, the Republican governors of West Virginia and Idaho have said they would do so as well.

It’s a stunning surge of momentum for a policy idea Republicans have been kicking around in Congress and in state legislatures for decades, only to be rebuffed by senior lawmakers in both parties amid opposition from both antihunger groups and the food industry.

“This push for SNAP restrictions is historical, but we have seen an unprecedented push around the states,” Gina Plata-Nino of the Food Research & Action Center said in an interview, adding that there used to be stronger opposition at the federal level.

Both Barack Obama’s administration in 2015 and Trump’s first administration in 2018 disallowed Maine from implementing a SNAP junk food ban, citing potential difficulties for retailers, headaches over deciding which foods are unhealthy and uncertainty over the long-term health benefit of the change.

In an analysis of point-of-sale transaction data from a large retailer, the USDA reported in 2016 that soft drinks were the top commodity purchased by SNAP beneficiaries, whose food spending patterns were similar to other retail customers. Plata-Nino suggested a more rigorous study would examine SNAP recipients’ spending habits over time.

More than 20 million households receive monthly SNAP benefits, which can be used for almost any food item in a grocery store except alcohol and hot ready-to-eat meals. The Arkansas proposal would cut out “soda, low and no-calorie soda, fruit and vegetable drinks with less than 50% natural juice, unhealthy drinks, and candy” while allowing SNAP recipients to buy hot rotisserie chickens.

The American Medical Association, citing an obesity epidemic in the U.S., has said SNAP restrictions are a good idea — a point of agreement between the health industry and Kennedy, who has espoused quack views on vaccines. Kennedy has championed SNAP restrictions even though the USDA, not HHS, oversees the program, reportedly causing some tension between the agencies.

Kennedy said at a Cabinet meeting this month he’s working with governors in 24 states “to get soda pops off of the food stamp program,” describing it as part of a broader push, including eliminating harmful food dyes and fluoride in drinking water.

Still, there’s strong bipartisan opposition in Congress to restricting SNAP benefits to certain foods, and any waivers granted to states could be yanked away by a future president. Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.), chair of the House Agriculture Committee, which oversees SNAP, suggested to HuffPost in March that banning sodas from SNAP wouldn’t stop SNAP recipients from drinking them.

“The average SNAP beneficiary uses multiple forms of payment when they buy their groceries,” Thompson said. “So on the belt, you’re going to find all the food choices that reflects the average family. So there’ll be things there that appear to be more nutritional than others, but these individuals are using two, three or more forms of payment.”

The new push for food restrictions comes as Republicans target SNAP and Medicaid for significant cuts to help offset the cost of extending tax cuts Trump enacted in his first term.