Another in an ongoing series
Dear Senator;
I am a resident of Pennsylvania and a constituent of yours and I'd like you to answer a question or two.
I'd like to ask you about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (aka SNAP) and how Trump's recently passed "Big Beautiful Bill" will reduce its funding.
You voted for Trump's bill so you voted for SNAP's reduction in federal funding.
About 1.9 million Pennsylvanians receive SNAP benefits. That's about 14% of the state's population.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported:
Proposed changes to SNAP, commonly known as food stamps, in the so-called “big, beautiful bill” tax and spending package championed by President Donald Trump would shift some program costs from the federal government to the state. And based on the proposed plan, and how the program has been funded here in recent years, the state could have to pay hundreds of millions more — as much as a threefold increase, according to some projections.
And:
Gov. Josh Shapiro has said there is no way for the state to absorb the added costs. He estimated that of the 2 million state residents currently receiving benefits from SNAP, 140,000 would be kicked off the rolls, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services’ (DHS) analysis of the House version of the bill.
140,000 Pennsylvanians kicked off the SNAP rolls. That's about 7% of the total.
All that just to help pay for Trump's massive tax cuts to the already extremely wealthy.
How will you be explaining this to your constituents, Senator? Will you be explaining how some of them will be even more food insecure just so those few folks who've never had to worry about where their next meal is coming from can have just a little more money at the end of the year?
Will you be explaining your vote to them?
I'll await your answer, Senator.
Of course, I'll post the Senator's answer here in full.
UPDATE: I corrected an error an astute reader discovered in first link.
