Congress made significant cuts in eligibility for SNAP food benefits last year, but nutrition advocates say bills currently pending in the state Legislature would make it tougher for Alabama recipients.

Measures pending before the state Senate would tighten restrictions on what products SNAP beneficiaries could buy, and would require the state to more closely check applicants' eligibility.

Carol Gundlach, senior policy analyst with the public policy advocacy group Alabama Arise, said one bill would block beneficiaries from buying sugary or heavily processed food items.

"One of the ironies," she said, "is that in HB 1, the 'Big, Beautiful Bill,' the Congress eliminated SNAP education, which really was designed to teach people how to buy healthy foods."

Gundlach said a better solution would be for the state to provide proper nutrition education on how to buy and prepare healthy foods.

he bills, Senate Bills 57 and 61, have both passed out of committee in the state Senate and are awaiting a floor vote. Bill sponsors say the aim is to make sure SNAP benefits are used properly, and that applicants eligibility is properly certified.

Gundlach said the second measure would make many current SNAP recipients ineligible. It requires frequent eligibility cross-checks across SNAP and Medicaid and mandates in-depth verification of income, assets, residency and household size.

"What it would do," she said, "is cause the state a whole lot of additional hassle to go out there and figure out whether or not that old car that's up on cement blocks in somebody's backyard is too valuable for them to receive SNAP."

Gundlach said she believes that the two measures are not designed to "prevent waste, fraud and abuse" as they're advertised, but to make obtaining benefits so difficult that fewer people will apply.

Source: Public News Service