Wisconsin Public Radio: Derrick Van Orden Backs SNAP Cuts That “Would Be The Largest Cut in the Program’s History”

After lying for months about voting for SNAP cuts, Van Orden lies again: claiming that Wisconsinites won’t lose access to SNAP

New reporting from Wisconsin Public Radio is spotlighting how Derrick Van Orden’s vote to slash the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) would jeopardize food access and raise costs for approximately 700,000 Wisconsinites, 60% of which are families with children.

Van Orden made a promise to Wisconsinites that he’d protect SNAP – and just days later, he broke it by voting YES to advance “the largest cut in the program’s history.” Now, he’s lying to Wisconsinites again, claiming that Wisconsinites “legally receiving SNAP benefits should not see a single reduction in their SNAP.”

DCCC Spokesperson Katie Smith:
“After months of talking out of both sides of his mouth, Derrick Van Orden is delusional if he thinks that Wisconsinites are going to forget his repeated lies and broken promises about protecting SNAP. Van Orden supports the largest cuts to SNAP in history even though 34,000 families in WI-03 depend on the program, and voters will hold him accountable next November.”

Wisconsin Public Radio: Wisconsin Republicans in Congress back Trump spending bill as advocates warn of food assistance cuts

• The proposed cuts to SNAP would be some of the biggest in history

• As Republicans in Congress hammer out the details of a massive tax bill that would form a cornerstone of President Donald Trump’s agenda, the responsibility for food assistance could end up shifted to the states.

• Republican members of Wisconsin’s congressional delegation back the move […] But advocates warn the savings will take place on the backs of needy people.

• About 1 in every 8 Wisconsinites, or about 700,000 people, receives food assistance through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Sixty percent of recipient families have children, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive national think tank.

• At the state Republican Party Convention over the weekend, Wisconsin’s GOP congressmen were united behind that massive bill, which would also cut Medicaid and shift tax policy while expanding funding for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

• Speaking to reporters, U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Prairie du Chien, said, “Any single American citizen that is legally receiving SNAP benefits should not see a single reduction in their SNAP.”

• He argued that the changes would reduce double-payments from people receiving benefits across multiple states, and increase efficiency by cutting the program’s unnecessary overhead and bureaucracy.

• Alex Jacquez is chief of policy and advocacy at Groundwork Collaborative, a Washington, D.C.-based progressive think tank.  He said the cost burden on Wisconsin could be as high as $340 million.

• Jacquez and Democratic opponents of the bill argue that amounts to a tax cut giveaway to wealthy people, balanced on the backs of low-income families.

• “This kind of funding is not in states’ budgets. And so they’re either going to need to scale back the number of recipients who get SNAP benefits, or they could opt out of the program entirely,” said Jacquez. “That is how the House Republicans achieved their savings to pay for a tax bill that is going to overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest and large corporations.”

• Jacquez roundly disagreed with Van Orden’s assessment that legal recipients wouldn’t lose benefits.

• “Fewer people are going to get SNAP benefits. That is basically the whole ballgame here,” he said.

• The total proposed cuts to SNAP would amount to about $300 billion, which would be the largest cut in the program’s history, according to an analysis by the Latino advocacy group UnidosUS.

###