New Mexico Senator Ben Ray Luján is again raising the alarm over proposed cuts to a key nutrition program.
Luján joined Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota yesterday to lead a Senate forum called Hunger by Design.
The forum focused on a Republican proposal to cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, by $300 billion.
SNAP currently helps more than 42 million Americans buy food. That includes children, seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities.
Senator Luján said the proposal would slash benefits by 30 percent—the largest cut in SNAP’s history.
He said it would shift over $150 billion in costs to states and leave millions with less food assistance.
"Passage of the house budget bill would be a shocking reversal of this long standing promise, ripping a gaping hole in the nutritional floor in the United States of America that we have fought so long for from the original conversation about building a farm bill in the United States of America," said Lujan.
Katy Anderson, who heads the Roadrunner Food Bank in Albuquerque, spoke at the D.C. forum and said the cuts would hit New Mexico particularly hard.
She said that more than 20 percent of New Mexicans rely on SNAP for access to food.
She said that, of those, about 60% are in families with children, 30% are in families with members who are older adults or are disabled, and 43% are in working families.
Other speakers included researchers, state officials, and SNAP recipients.
Lawmakers and experts warned that the cuts would not only reduce access to food, but also hurt local economies, small businesses, and farmers.
They also warned that nearly half a million children could lose access to school meals.
Lujan argued that cutting SNAP could also make life difficult for people who are not beneficiaries of the program.
He cited the possibility that the proposed defunding could force rural grocery stories to close and impact people already living in or near areas considered food deserts.
