MARQUETTE – Gov. Gretchen Whitmer released a statement condemning and highlighting the impacts of federal budget cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Cuts to SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, in the Trump-led budget bill which recently made it through the United States House of Representatives see nearly $300 billion of funding being removed from the program.

“No one should go to bed hungry in Michigan or anywhere in wealthiest, most powerful country in the world,” said Whitmer. “Right now, Republicans in Congress are rushing through a nearly $300 billion cut to SNAP, which 42 million Americans rely on to feed themselves and their kids. They’re jamming these cuts into a bill that also guts Medicaid, terminating health care for millions of our most vulnerable friends, family, and neighbors while jacking up costs on everyone. In Michigan, we will fight to make sure our kids and families are fed, but we need Republicans in our congressional delegation to step up for their own constituents who need SNAP and Medicaid to survive. If these cuts are signed into law, more Michiganders will go to bed hungry. That’s unacceptable. We should making it easier for families to afford the essentials, like food and health care, not harder.”

Whitmer’s analysis of the cuts are in line with The Brookings Institution, a Washington D.C.-based think tank who did an analysis on the cuts.

“We find that these changes would undermine SNAP’s role in combatting recessions, penalize workers who have recently lost their jobs or income, and increase food hardship among workers, children, and the elderly,” the report says. “If Congress were to restructure SNAP by ending full federal funding of program benefits, increasing exposure to work requirements that cut off benefits at times when most people who are looking for jobs cannot find them, and making it harder to waive such work requirements when evidence shows that labor markets are weak, the automatic stabilization features of the program would be undercut.”

A University of Michigan analysis finds that nearly 12% of Upper Peninsula residents receive SNAP benefits, with nearly 14% of U.P. residents living below poverty level.

A memo from the Michigan State Budget Office says that out of Michigan’s more than 1.4 million residents who receive SNAP benefits, more than 59% are families with children, 46% are working families and 39% have an elderly family member or one with a disability.

Randy Crouch can be reached at 906-228-2500. His email address is rcrouch@miningjournal.net.