“Senate Bill 257 would also require more eligibility checks for Kentuckians receiving food assistance. More than half a million Kentuckians received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits this month, 40% of whom are children, according to state data,” Goodman reports.
Opponents of the bill say it will kick thousands of Kentuckians off of food assistance at a time when some are already losing eligibility due to changes in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill. “The number of people on SNAP in Kentucky has declined since the bill became law in July by about 81,000 individuals,” Goodman writes.
Sponsor Sen. Shelley Funke Frommeyer, R-Alexandria, said “the legislation ‘simplifies’ the requirements and makes sure only the most needy have access to food assistance,” Goodman writes. Funke Frommeyer also said the bill would help the state lower its SNAP error rate, a metric that is now used to determine the state’s share of the benefits’ costs.
The Senate Families and Children Committee did not vote on the bill at the March 17 meeting after two Republican senators expressed concern over the lack of a cost analysis, Goodman reports.
Goodman explains the bill in detail, with comments from Jason Dunn, the former Kentucky SNAP director, on why reinstating the asset test would disincentivize families from building up savings and how disallowing people with gross incomes between 130% and 200% of the poverty line to qualify for SNAP would contribute to making the benefits cliff worse, which happens when people lose financial assistance as their income increases.
The left-leaning Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, using data obtained from the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, estimates that dropping categorical eligibility, which allows states to grant SNAP benefits to those who have a gross income as high as 200% of the poverty line, although their net income still has to fall below the 130% poverty line, would take SNAP away from 40,000 Kentuckians, including 16,800 children and 6,600 older adults.
When asked about the impact on regions heavily reliant on SNAP, Funke Frommeyer told KPR that “the bill is meant to act in tandem with other legislative efforts to increase workforce participation and improve the lives of Kentuckians through meaningful employment,” Goodman writes.
The bill awaits further consideration in the Senate Families and Children Committee.