Five food stamp recipients are suing the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) over restrictions on junk food as U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is working to Make America Healthy Again.
The group of recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits filed the lawsuit on Wednesday and are being represented by the National Center for Law and Economic Justice (NCLEJ), the Hill reported Thursday.
The lawsuit challenges the USDA’s food restriction waivers, the outlet noted. Under the waivers, a pilot project, SNAP recipients may not use their benefits to buy certain junk foods. The USDA has so far approved 22 of the waivers.
The suit states:
The food restriction waivers contain no exceptions for individual medical, nutritional, or household circumstances. Instead, the food restriction waivers place on recipients and retailers the responsibility for determining whether a particular product is a permissible SNAP purchase under each state’s altered definition of ‘food.’”
Kennedy has targeted the issue of whether people on federal food assistance programs should be allowed to purchase junk food with that food assistance, Breitbart News reported in April. Months later, Kennedy said he was moving to prevent SNAP users from buying food such as sugary sodas because taxpayers, he explained, should not have to pay for it.
The Breitbart News article continued:
The comments from Kennedy were made as he and U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary joined Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins in celebrating the signing of six new SNAP state waivers, which would “amend the statutory definition of food for purchase and end the subsidization of popular types of junk food beginning in 2026,” according to an HHS press release. States signing the new SNAP waivers include West Virginia, Florida, Colorado, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas.
In January, SNAP began enforcing the standards for recipients in five states as part of the MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) agenda: Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Utah, and West Virginia, according to Breitbart News.
Rollins said at the time, “President Trump has made it clear: we are restoring SNAP to its true purpose – nutrition. Under the MAHA initiative, we are taking bold, historic steps to reverse the chronic diseases epidemic that has taken root in this country for far too long.”
Texas recently said it would begin imposing work requirements for people receiving SNAP benefits.
According to the Hill article, the five SNAP recipients suing the USDA are from Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee, and West Virginia.
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