COMMENT PERIOD EXTENDED:
Struggling Workers and Families Deserve Food
Tell the Trump Administration: Hands Off SNAP!
It’s quick and easy - Leave a Comment by Wednesday, April 10th

Procrastinators: You're in luck! If you didn't leave a comment by the deadline this week, the submission period has been extended. You can still comment by Wednesday, April 10th. 

Food assistance is under attack—again. And we need your voice to fight back.

If the Trump Administration has its way, 755,000 very poor people could lose nutrition benefits through SNAP (formerly known as food stamps). These are working-age people without dependents who receive benefits because they live in places with very high unemployment. Thanks to waivers requested by state governments, these people are exempt from the standard time limit of three months of assistance every three years if they cannot document enough work hours. This exemption means people who can’t work enough through no fault of their own still get enough to eat.

But the Trump Administration has been fighting to make it harder for states to give struggling workers a break. Right now, they’re trying to force rigid time limits through a rule change—but they cannot implement their proposed rule without first taking into account public comments about the proposal.

Public feedback works. That’s why we need your help. The government has to take every unique comment under consideration when assessing a rule change like this; the more comments, the more roadblocks to slow or stop harmful changes. Furthermore, judges deciding cases challenging these kinds of rule changes have referred to these comments in their own rulings. It might feel like leaving a comment won’t make a difference. But judges have overturned unfair rules like this in part because federal agencies didn’t take comments into consideration. This was evidence that the process behind making these changes was unfair. (You can read about such an instance involving Medicaid here.)

That’s why your voice is so important.

Here’s how to comment:

The Coalition on Human Needs’ member the Center for American Progress has a comment portal that makes it easy to send a comment. Use the comment in this platform and then add your own take to make it unique. You can talk about how everyone deserves to be free from hunger; you can tell a personal story about how benefits like SNAP have positively impacted you or someone you know; or write about any other reason that resonates for you personally.

(Note: Please make sure your comment is unique: “unique” is understood to mean that about 30 percent of the comment’s text is different from other submissions.)

Use the Center for American Progress comment platform at handsoffsnap.org

Let’s get to commenting!

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This call to action was originally published by the Coalition on Human Needs.