On Friday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a plan to overhaul states’ roles in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
The Trump administration will allow states to stop covering unhealthy foods and beverages, including soft drinks, in order to encourage people to make healthier grocery store purchases.
Removing soda from the list of foods eligible for food stamps is a cornerstone of the “Make America Healthy Again” campaign.
“President Trump said that he wants to make America healthy again,” Kennedy told reporters. “He wants to strengthen it again. We cannot have a strong country with sick citizens.”
“A person who is healthy has 1,000 dreams, a person who is sick has only one, and there is 60% of our country now that has only one dream, which is to get better, and we need to give them a pathway to doing that,” Mr. Kennedy said. “And the pathway is food.”
Kennedy made the announcement in West Virginia alongside Gov. Patrick Morrisey (R-WV), speaking to a group of teachers, students, and parents at a local school.
The state recently became the first in the nation to prohibit the use of artificial food dyes. At least twenty states are considering similar restrictions.
“Is the SNAP program doing what it was supposed to do?” Morrisey spoke. “That ‘N’ stands for Nutrition. It is not for nonsense.
If the law states that the program is intended to help people eat a more nutritious diet, that should be the standard.”
The governor also stated that he has requested a waiver to prohibit soft drink purchases as an entitlement under SNAP.
“If taxpayers are paying for it, let’s make sure it fuels health, not disease,” Morrisey told the crowd. “This is not about judging someone’s grocery cart, but it is about asking a fair question: ‘Is the SNAP program doing what it was supposed to do?'”
Kennedy does not have explicit authority over SNAP, which is administered by the Agriculture Department.
According to the New York Times, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has indicated that she will grant waivers to states that want to eliminate soda coverage.
SNAP benefits are part of the farm bill, which is usually passed every five years. The bill was last approved in 2018, but disagreements between Republicans and Democrats, primarily over SNAP funding, prevented the House and Senate from agreeing on an updated version, resulting in two extensions of the 2018 text.
