What’s At Stake for Missouri in the 2018 Farm Bill

Empower Missouri: Advocates for the well-being of all Missourians through civic leadership, education and research. www.empowermissouri.org Food Research and Action Center ( FRAC): Is the leading national nonprofit organization working to eradicate poverty-related hunger and undernutrition in the United States. www.frac.org MAZON: Is a national nonprofit organization working to end hunger among people of all faiths and backgrounds in the United States and Israel. www.mazon.org

Bread for the World: Is a collective Christian voice urging our nation’s decision makers to end hunger at home and abroad. www.bread.org/ Center on Budget & Policy Priorities: A nonpartisan research and policy institute. CBPP pursues federal and state policies designed both to reduce poverty and inequality and to restore fiscal responsibility in equitable and effective ways. They apply deep expertise in budget and tax issues and in programs and policies that help low-income people, in order to help inform debates and achieve better policy outcomes.

Missouri already has a severe problem with poverty and hunger There were just over 6,000,000 people in Missouri and more than 825,000 individuals were living in poverty in 2016. Over 14% of households were living in poverty, and child poverty is even higher with 19.2% of children are living in poverty. (In some counties, 40%+) About 50% of Missouri students participated in free and reduced price school meals (590,000+ MO students are in the National School Lunch Program) (2016 data) ** www.frac.org/wp-content/uploads/sos-mo.pdf ** http://www.communityaction.org/2018-poverty-report/

Hunger is addressed through both: Private charitable organizations (for example, food pantries, food banks, soup kitchens, etc.) And Government funded nutrition programs (SNAP, WIC, School Meals)

Charity can’t do it alone

SNAP is crucial for Missouri In Missouri, SNAP reaches 350,000 households with 750,000 individuals in an average month (Nov 2017). SNAP helps 1 in 6 rural and small town households, and 1 in 8 households in metro areas afford healthy, nutritious meals. More than three-quarters (77%) had at least one working member in the past 12 months. Sources: MO DSS- Monthly Management Reports American Community Survey 2015 five-year estimates (2011-2015)

2018 Farm Bill - House Draft released and voted on by the House Agriculture Committee in April 2018 was a harsh and partisan bill (passed along party lines) Could cut two million individuals off SNAP (tens of thousands in Missouri) Increased bureaucracy through stringent work-hour tracking (and the Employment & Training portion is drastically underfunded - $30 per person per month) U.S. House voted it down 198-213 on May 18 U.S. House passed it on June 21 213-211 (with four representatives not voting)

2018 Farm Bill-Senate On June 13, on a vote of 20-1, the Senate Agriculture Committee approved a strong, bipartisan Senate Farm Bill (S. 3042) Highlights: No harmful cuts or changes to SNAP No expanded work-tracking requirements Strengthens the relationship between employers and SNAP employment and training Strengthens program integrity Increases funding for innovative SNAP E&T programs aimed at connecting participants to employment

Voting in the Senate Today! Several harmful amendments have been proposed including: Ernst 3090 — ban on waivers to protect childless adults in times of high unemployment.   Cotton 3141 — would modify and make more harsh existing SNAP work-tracking requirements. Kennedy 3098 — would require photo identification to use a SNAP EBT card.  Ernst 3126 — would allow states to have for-profit entities make SNAP eligibility determinations. Cruz – a work-tracking amendment more harsh than the House (combined with Kennedy amendment later)

Good news – fingers crossed! The Cruz-Kennedy amendment was tabled 68-30. Both Sen. Roy Blunt and Sen. Claire McCaskill, our Missouri U.S. senators, voted Yea, to table this very harmful amendment! Thanks to all who emailed, called, or visited their staff members. Keep contacting our senators with this message: Thanks for rejecting this harmful amendment. Support the Senate farm bill and work with Sens. Roberts and Stabenow to ensure that the final conference agreement is bipartisan and protects SNAP.

How do we know the House Farm Bill would harm MO? Look what happened in Missouri after passage of Senate Bill 24 in 2015 – another documentation-heavy bill demanding work activity tracking by families deeply in poverty. Month May 2015 May 2016 February 2017 February 2018 Parents on TANF 22, 711 9,513 7,851 6,195 Children on TANF 48,204 26,523 23,312 20,043

More about the harm done by Senate Bill 24 (2015) Under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, able-bodied adults without dependents could only receive SNAP for three months out of every three years unless they met stringent work hour tracking requirements. Waivers were allowed to grant extra time in counties with high unemployment. In 2015, more than 50 Missouri counties would have qualified for a waiver. However, Senate Bill 24 included a “waiver ban” – preventing MO from seeking waivers from January 1, 2016-December 31, 2018. DSS data indicates that 72,480 unemployed childless adults had their benefits terminated in 2016 and 2017. Many of those losing benefits may have deserved an exemption.

Senate Bill 24 – continued There is significant evidence that individuals sanctioned in state TANF and SNAP programs were in fact working or qualified for exemptions but did not complete the required paperwork or could not document their exemptions. A review of state TANF programs “showed that people with disabilities were disproportionately likely to be sanctioned for failing to meet work requirements.” Source: Judith Solomon, Kentucky Waiver Will Harm Medicaid Beneficiaries, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, January 16, 2018, at p. 6, citing LaDonna Pavetti, Michelle Derr, and Heather Hesketh, “Review of Sanction Policies and Research Studies,” Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., March 2003.

State Level Lessons To Apply to Federal Debate

SNAP work-tracking requirement bills Senate Bill 561 House Bill 1443 (as amended) House Bill 1486 House Bill 1846 Threatened access to SNAP for heads of household who fail to meet stringent work-hour-tracking requirements. The struggle to survive makes it hard to get paperwork in by deadlines week-after-week. If MO requires certain work requirements, specific job and education training programs must be in place that are expensive. Wisconsin estimated cost at $27 million annually. If parents fail to meet requirements, these families would lose benefits needed to feed their families. All four bills died on May 18, 2018, 6 p.m. May be reintroduced beginning December 1, 2018.

Keys to Success in 2018 Session More than 150 diverse organizations signed a letter that Empower Missouri circulated opposing these bills; signers included right of center groups, children’s organizations, religious agencies from many faith traditions, food pantries from many regions of the state, and pediatricians Raised issues about whether the Family Support Division had the staffing or capacity for proposed program (cited lack of experience screening and lack of success placing individuals into education and training, long call center wait times, outdated information technology, reorganization failures) Pointed out $50 million annual loss of SNAP benefits to local groceries, harming local economies

Sign Our Letter Supporting a Strong, Bipartisan Farm Bill Find it at our special Farm Bill microsite: www.FoodforMO.org Use these hashtags: #ProtectSNAP #FoodForMO #HandsOffSNAP

Thank You! Jeanette Mott Oxford, M. Div. Empower Missouri jeanette@empowermissouri.org Connect with Empower Missouri: @empowermissouri www.empowermissouri.org