{"id":44187,"date":"2025-06-30T21:55:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T02:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=44187"},"modified":"2025-06-30T22:37:39","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T03:37:39","slug":"top-democrat-questions-special-treatment-for-alaska-hawaii-in-gop-snap-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=44187","title":{"rendered":"Top Democrat questions \u2018special treatment\u2019 for Alaska, Hawaii in GOP SNAP proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sen. Amy Klobuchar\u2002<\/u><\/a>(Minn.), the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, questioned why only two states should receive \u201cspecial treatment\u201d in a GOP-backed plan to reduce federal dollars for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the coming years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of a major package being considered in the Senate to advance President Trump\u2019s tax priorities, Republicans also include a major change that would require some states to cover a share of SNAP benefit costs, which are currently funded by the federal government, for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans are floating changes to that plan that would create special carveouts for Alaska and Hawaii amid internal GOP pushback. But senators signal the exemption could be at risk as Democrats question \u201cspecial treatment\u201d for the states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn the SNAP side, as you know, they\u2019ve shifted $64 billion to the states, of which 44 have balanced budget amendments,\u201d Klobuchar argued on Monday. \u201cAnd we tried to stop that, because the states aren\u2019t going to be able to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTwo states, they threw in Hawaii, two states get this special treatment, and no one else, and so I just figure, if they get that treatment, maybe every other state should, you know, maybe we should be doing that for Wisconsin,\u201d she told The Hill. \u201cMaybe we should be doing that for Iowa.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis cost shift to the states is the biggest cost shift in the bill,\u201d she also said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans are still waiting on a ruling from the Senate parliamentarian to see if the reworked proposal passes muster with the chamber\u2019s Byrd Rule. That decision, in turn, could be instrumental in whether Sen. Lisa Murkowski\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-Alaska) will support the bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her comments come as Alaska\u2019s other senator, Sen. Dan Sullivan\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R), is pointing fingers at Democrats as he says the exemption \u2013 which is aimed at helping shield Alaska from steep cuts to federal dollars for food assistance \u2013 hangs in the balance because of pushback from the other side of the aisle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Politico was first to report the news<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer\u2002<\/u><\/a>(D-N.Y.) and the Democrats are trying, once again, to strip a provision that helps Hawaii and Alaska\u2019s most vulnerable,\u201d Sullivan told The Hill on Monday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverything that we\u2019re trying to do for Alaska and Hawaii, Schumer and the Democrats strip it,\u201d Sullivan said, while urging his Democratic colleagues to call to tell their leadership, \u201cDon\u2019t screw our provision that\u2019s just trying to make it a little less difficult on challenging communities to implement their SNAP requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the SNAP proposal, some states will cover a share of the cost of SNAP benefits if they have a payment error rate above 6 percent beginning in fiscal 2028.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in a change from a previous version of the SNAP proposal assembled by the Senate Agriculture Committee, the bill also includes a \u201cwaiver authority\u201d section that could allow for noncontiguous states, or Alaska and Hawaii, to see the requirements waived if they\u2019re found to be \u201cactively implementing a corrective action plan\u201d and carrying out other activities to reduce their error rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The update came after Alaska Republicans raised concerns over the GOP-crafted proposal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans say the proposal is aimed at incentivizing states to get their payment error rates down, while Democrats have argued the measure could lead to states having to cut benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Figures recently unveiled<\/u><\/a> by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found the state\u2019s payment error rate \u2014 which factors in overpayment and underpayment error rates \u2014 hit 24.66 percent in fiscal 2024. The rate is the highest in any state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The national average in the new reporting was 10.93 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sen. Amy Klobuchar\u2002(Minn.), the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, questioned why only two states should receive \u201cspecial treatment\u201d in a GOP-backed plan to reduce federal dollars for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the coming years. As part of a major package being considered in the Senate to advance President Trump\u2019s tax priorities, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":44188,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2146,1236,1264,2721,3311,2687],"class_list":["post-44187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-alaska","tag-democrats","tag-gop","tag-hawaii","tag-question","tag-snap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44187"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44189,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44187\/revisions\/44189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}