FRAC Chat

On July 4, 2025, President Trump signed into law the Republican-led budget reconciliation bill (H.R. 1), representing one of the most far-reaching overhauls of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in its history. While proponents framed H.R. 1 as a measure to curb spending and tighten program rules, the law makes deep cuts to SNAP and fundamentally shifts additional financial responsibilities to states while extending tax breaks to billionaires. The law slashes benefits, expands harsh time limits, eliminates eligibility for many humanitarian immigrants, caps future benefit increases, and shifts massive new costs to states. It also ends federal funding for SNAP-Ed.

September is National Kinship Care Month, making this an ideal time to reflect on the importance of kinship caregivers who are raising children, and actions to help kinship families and grandfamilies put food on the table.

On July 4th, President Trump signed the budget reconciliation package, H.R. 1, into law. This law makes sweeping cuts to nutrition and health care support for millions of people to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is one of the most effective tools the U.S. has to reduce hunger and support households with low incomes. Nowhere is this impact more critical than in rural America, where food insecurity, economic stagnation, and limited access to services intersect to create deep vulnerability. Yet, provisions in the recently enacted budget reconciliation law (H.R. 1, also known as OBBBA) — passed by a majority of Republicans in Congress and signed by President Trump on July 4, 2025 — undermine this vital program, hitting rural communities hardest, economically, socially, and physically.

Food insecurity takes a toll on maternal, infant, and child health.

In 2023, 47.4 million people — including 13.8 million children — lived in food-insecure households.

Food insecurity is linked to poor health and development and is associated with some of the most common and costly health problems in the U.S. For adults and pregnant women, its linked to fair or poor health status, pregnancy complications (e.g., gestational diabetes, iron deficiency), and depression (including maternal depression). For infants and children, food insecurity is especially detrimental to health, development, and well-being, with links to low birth weight, birth defects, more frequent colds and stomachaches, development risk, increased hospitalizations, and more.