Missouri Governor Abandons Plan to Cut Food Stamps

Governor Nixon announced his withdrawal of proposed rule to modify the state's waiver under the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

October 28, 2013

ST. LOUIS – Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon announced last week that he has directed the Missouri Department of Social Services to withdraw a proposed rule to modify Missouri's existing waiver under the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

"Ensuring state-administered food assistance programs operate as effectively and efficiently as possible is an important priority of my administration," Gov. Nixon said. "With greater certainty about what the federal funding level for the food stamp program will be after last week's budget agreement, we have made a determination that the appropriate course of action is to maintain the policy that is currently in place."

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the governor’s reversal ends, “a potentially raucous fight over the future of food stamps in Missouri.”

State GOP lawmakers said they plan to revisit the issue in January. “I was very disappointed that the governor changed his position, and now is for keeping a temporary program in place that has already gone on longer than it should have,” said state Sen. Will Kraus told the newspaper.

The newspaper writes that federal waivers allowing expansion of SNAP will remain in place until 2015. Earlier in October, Nixon had  “unexpectedly called for Missouri to stop using the waivers” and return to pre-2009 limits on the program.

“It’s clear from all discussions that we’re going to see downward pressure from the federal government,” Nixon told reporters at an event at Lake Ozark in mid-October, according to the website PoliticMo. “Rather than be in reactive mode, we thought the best thing to do was be prepared for the future and move forward accordingly as the resources from Washington are narrowed.”

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that the plan would have resulted in “some 58,000 able-bodied childless adults in Missouri” no longer qualifying for SNAP benefits, according to state official estimates.

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