Report outlines how New Mexico could counter federal food benefits cuts
As the U.S. government considers cutting funding for the nation's most prominent food benefits program, advocates in New Mexico recommend the state government step in to protect and expand it.
Nonprofit child advocacy organization New Mexico Voices for Children on Friday released a report outlining five recommendations for New Mexico to improve its Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps.
The U.S. House Committee on Agriculture is expected on Tuesday to hold a 'markup' hearing to discuss how Republicans plan to cut federal funding for SNAP.
The report, written by NM Voices Senior Research and Policy Analyst Emily Wildau, notes that while the U.S. Department of Agriculture administers SNAP, state governments manage applications, certify households and issue monthly benefits to participants' Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards.
The proposed Republican cuts to SNAP, Medicaid and other programs 'will mean less food assistance for families and lead directly to higher costs for groceries, increased hunger, and significant harm for both local economies and state spending priorities over time,' the report continues.
In New Mexico, one quarter the population receives SNAP benefits, the highest rate of any state in the U.S., according to the report, and out of all SNAP recipients in New Mexico, 38% are children and 62% are working. Overall, between 2015 and 2019, SNAP lifted an average of 60,000 New Mexicans, including 25,000 children, above the poverty line each yea,
'It is critical that advocates work to protect SNAP benefits and enact important reforms at the state level that can counter these federal attacks,' the report states.
Wildau's report contains five recommendations on how the state of New Mexico should support the SNAP program. First among them: codify the state's SNAP Outreach Plan into state law, which would require the state Health Care Authority to submit an annual outreach plan to the federal government.
This would allow nonprofits working with the state government to use federal matching funds to distribute food to SNAP recipients, the report says.
Both chambers of the New Mexico Legislature unanimously passed this proposal in the most recent legislative session but Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham vetoed it.
The governor wrote that the legislation is unnecessary because 90% of New Mexicans who are eligible for the benefits already receive them. 'We continue to invite collaboration with advocacy groups to discuss ways to make meaningful improvements to our programs,' the governor wrote.
NM Voices also recommends that New Mexico streamline the SNAP application process so eligible New Mexicans have lower barriers to benefits. Currently, someone can initially apply for SNAP online but cannot report changes in income or renew their benefits online, the report says.
Last fall, New Mexico extended the SNAP exit threshold to 200% of the federal poverty level, up from 165% last year. This means people can continue to receive SNAP even if their income is twice the federal poverty line.
Paige Knight, research director at NM Voices, told Source NM in an interview that the group's recommendations could change as the proposed federal cuts become reality.
'Whatever happens federally, we may need to update some of those recommendations based on what's feasible, what changed federally, and make adjustments,' she said.
The report's third recommendation is for New Mexico to continue softening the SNAP benefit cliff, which is when someone loses eligibility for benefits when their income exceeds the program's income eligibility limit. The state government could create its own SNAP benefit for households that have recently lost eligibility after increasing their incomes above 200% of the federal poverty lines, and provide an extended benefit for several months to allow families to continue saving money as they transition out of SNAP, Wildau wrote.
New Mexico could also expand the program to reach more people by treating child support payments as an income exclusion rather than a tax deduction, which would lower a household's taxable income, the report notes.
Finally, the report recommends New Mexico provide SNAP to immigrant households with children who are ineligible for the benefits under federal regulations, and provide protections and education to immigrant families who can receive SNAP but may fear repercussions 'due to the changing federal landscape.'
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