WASHINGTON, D.C. – More than a third of Puerto Ricans live below the poverty line and rely on federal food assistance. On Capitol Hill, Puerto Rican officials are advocating for Puerto Ricans to receive SNAP benefits. Thier calls to change the island’s food assistance program comes at a time when congress is looking to cut costs. They share how this legislation differs from previous bills with the same goal.
“Hunger should not have a zip code,” said Pablo Jose Hernandez, Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner. He and Puerto Rico’s Governor, Jenniffer Gonzalez Colon, are working together to transition from the Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP) to SNAP. Both NAP and SNAP have similar goals to help low income families get food assistance.
“Today, close to 38 percent of Puerto Ricans, close to 1.2 million people, receive the Nutritional Assistance Program,” said the Resident Commissioner. “In 2022, the average family of fourreceived 315 dollars a month [under NAP]. Under SNAP, they would’ve received close to 535 dollars a month.”
But the programs differ in design and implementation mainly due to their funding strucutre, like block grants for NAP versus entitlement program for SNAP.
“In the case of an emergency like floods, earthquakes hurricanes, or many other situations, we need to have a declaration of disaster be made by the President and then come here approve a bill in the House, approve a bill in the Senate and then get the President to sign it in order to get the extra or supplemental money to address that disaster situation,” explained the Governor. “If we have the SNAP program it would be automatically transferred to the people of Puerto Rico. I was a witness to that situation when Hurricane Maria struck the island many years ago and I had to come here to receive and fight to get more resources to the island.”
For years, Puerto Rican officials have advocated to transition to SNAP. In this latest legislation, there’s a key difference in it they believe could help get the support it needs.
“The difference between this bill and the ones we’ve filed before is that this one is taking into account the recommendation from USDA saying the island may need up to ten years to do the formal transition,” said the Governor.
For years, most of the pushback on transitioning NAP to SNAP for Puerto Ricans has come down to the cost. In a USDA study, they estimate it would cost 341 to 426 million dollars during the implementation period to transition from NAP to SNAP. The estimated cost of administering SNAP in Puerto Rico could be from 249 million to 414 million per year, and the cost benefits is 4.5 billion annually. But advocates said Puerto Ricans deserve the same benefits as those living on the mainland.
“Puerto Rico should not get less,” said the Resident Commissioner. “Puerto Rico should get the same as the American citizens living in the mainland when it comes to programs to fight hunger.”
