Right now, Congress and the Trump Administration are working to cut food stamps and to impose new barriers to access nutritious food. Most recently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has requested comments from the public that make it appear the Administration wants to impose stricter rules on a key public investment and the largest food assistance program in our country, making it harder for Americans who have lost their jobs to access food stamps, federally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Not only is the USDA looking at tougher rules for individuals, they are considering the elimination of important flexibilities that counties and states have to ensure federal rules make sense at the local level.  These changes could be costly to local governments while letting Washington call the shots, rather than Colorado.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Tell the Administration that it is unacceptable to cut food assistance for people who have lost their jobs.

Submit your comment online to the USDA; individual comments are most effective, so recruit a friend or neighbor to do the same. A sample comment is provided below, and we encourage you to personalize it. The deadline for submitting comments is 9:59 p.m. MST on Monday, April 9.

Sample copy for comments:
I am writing to oppose stricter time limits to food stamps, federally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). There are already strict rules for people who don’t have children or dependents (able-bodied adults without dependents – ABAWD) to get food assistance through SNAP. We should not make the existing harsh rules even worse by taking away state flexibility or exposing more people to time-limited benefits. Increasing the ability of USDA to deny state waivers for easing SNAP time limits and imposing these strict rules on more individuals will only increase the number of people facing hunger in Colorado and our country.