Push to include Puerto Rico in SNAP faces uphill battle

• Critics call NAP an example of how its residents, who are U.S. citizens, are discriminated against.

Catch up fast: Earlier this year, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), other Democrats and Rep. Jenniffer González-Colón (R-P.R.), reintroduced a bill in both Houses that would enable Puerto Rico to participate in SNAP.

• Gillibrand tells Axios via email that she will push for the proposal to be included in the upcoming farm bill, which is the legislation that governs agricultural and food programs and is set to expire in September.
• It's unclear when the draft farm bill will be released, or when Congress will vote on it, although House Agriculture Committee chair Glenn "GT" Thompson (R-PA) said he is aiming for a September vote.
• Gillibrand notes that programs like SNAP are "vital" for millions of American citizens and "should be accessible for citizens in Puerto Rico as well."

What they're saying: The need to include Puerto Ricans in SNAP is most evident during disasters on the island, says José D. Soto Rivera, the northeast regional organizer for Bread for the World, a faith-based organization that is pushing for the inclusion in the farm bill.

• Puerto Rico has faced several disasters in recent years that have left many people on the island without power or access to resources.
• Without power, a common occurrence with the island's troubled electric grid, the machines that process NAP cards can't operate, leaving many without money to buy food, Soto Rivera says.
• Soto Rivera, whose family once used the NAP program, says allowing Puerto Ricans on the island to access SNAP would not just help Puerto Ricans who are struggling with food security, but also benefit American farmers because most food on the island is imported from the U.S.

Zoom out: Gillibrand initially introduced the bill to reinstate SNAP benefits in Puerto Rico last year, but it did not make it out of committee.

• Gillibrand tells Axios she’s "optimistic" that the legislation will advance in the farm bill.
• If successful, it would take about a decade to implement, with the cost of administering SNAP in Puerto Rico priced at around $249 million to $414 million a year, per a 2022 feasibility study by the USDA.

Yes, but: Some Republicans are planning to push for more reforms to SNAP after successfully getting expanded work requirements for program recipients into the debt ceiling deal.

• Plus, there's not a lot of support or interest in expanding SNAP to include Puerto Ricans because of the costs associated with it, according to a Republican aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

• Other barriers the aide cited include Puerto Rico's low labor force participation, which the aide said would conflict with work requirements embedded in the program, as well as concerns about whether the island has the resources to implement it.

Umailla Fatima, an analyst at UnidosUS, which is advocating for Puerto Rico’s transition to SNAP to be included in the farm bill, said the organization is worried that Republican efforts to cut SNAP benefits "will halt the progress” of food and nutrition advocates on the issue.

Between the lines: The funding lid on NAP means not all Puerto Rico residents who would otherwise qualify based on income and other requirements can access the program, unlike in the mainland U.S., where SNAP funding levels can increase based on need.

• The higher eligibility threshold impacted Jayson Call, a 52-year-old man in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, who was shut out of the program when he first applied in 2015 because his family didn't meet the income requirements even though they were surviving on his wife's $7.25 an-hour job. Call had stopped working to take care of his son, who was extremely sick with diabetes.
• "It was a really hard punch to the gut because we couldn't buy food and medicine," Call tells Axios Latino in Spanish.
• Eventually, he was told he could deduct the cost of his son's medications to qualify for NAP, which the family did.

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