Senators Cory Booker of New Jersey and Marco Rubio of Florida have sponsored legislation requiring the government to monitor the items that recipients of SNAP benefits purchase. In doing so, they seek to encourage healthy eating.
Sen. Booker stated in an announcement that “SNAP serves an essential part in reducing poverty and hunger, but must do more to improve food security and dietary health.”
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program enables Americans with low incomes to purchase food. However, some of the senators’ and others’ buys are harmful, they worry.
The Department of Agriculture might be required to publish an analysis of the foods individuals are purchasing with SNAP and to clarify how any adjustments it proposes to the program enhance nutrition if their measure, the SNAP Nutrition Security Act of 2023, is passed into law.
Sen. Rubio stated in a statement that the information would “give people an improved understanding of how SNAP may be utilized to enhance the recipient’s well-being and ensure the program supports a healthy, nutritional diet.”