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Today, during a House Agriculture Committee hearing, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) called out the Trump Administration and their Republican allies for threatening to slash $230 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—which more than 40 million Americans rely on for monthly food assistance—in order to pay for a $4.5 trillion tax cut for the wealthiest Americans.  

In her remarks, Pingree blasted the proposed plan, highlighting the devastating impact these cuts would have on Maine, where more than 174,000 people—including over 43,000 children—rely on the program each month. 

“Look, I may be a Democrat, but in my state, making sure the kids get fed, making sure that our seniors have food, this is just common sense. About a third of the households in my state use SNAP dollars to feed children. There are over 174,000 Mainers who get help from SNAP. This is just to put food on the table. And I think we all know $6 a day per person isn't much to feed your family,” Pingree said in her remarks. “... The reason we're talking about the cuts, it's not ‘fear mongering.’ It's not ‘smack.’ It's because in this reconciliation plan, which some of our Republican colleagues have been over in the White House talking about just as this hearing was going on, you can't cut $230 billion from this committee without cutting some SNAP benefits. That's why we're here. That's why we're talking about this.”

A transcript of Pingree complete remarks is copied below. 

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Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. Thank you to you and the ranking member for hosting this hearing. Thank you to everyone on the panel. It's possible I'm the last speaker. At least I'm close. And I know you've put in many hours, and I hope you know how much we appreciate the time that you're spending with us.

Just to counter a little bit what my colleague from Wisconsin was saying, talking about this hearing as being ‘fear mongering’ and ‘talking smack.’ Look, I may be a Democrat, but in my state, making sure the kids get fed, making sure that our seniors have food, this is just common sense. About a third of the households in my state use SNAP dollars to feed children.

There are over 174,000 Mainers who get help from SNAP. This is just to put food on the table. And I think we all know $6 a day per person isn't much to feed your family, $2 per person. I just want to say the reason we're talking about the cuts, it's not ‘fear mongering’. It's not ‘smack.’ It's because in this reconciliation plan, which some of our Republican colleagues have been over in the White House talking about just as this hearing was going on, you can't cut $230 billion from this committee without cutting some SNAP benefits.

That's why we're here. That's why we're talking about this. We've been through a very long farm bill negotiation. I hope we're able to bring that to a conclusion at some point. But we've been talking about cutting food through the healthy Thrifty Food plan. So we know this is about whether it's, future opportunities to have enough money to pay for SNAP or current benefits.

This is on the table. It's a current conversation. That is actually why we're here. And so many of my colleagues say “waste, fraud and abuse.” “Get rid of the waste, fraud and abuse.” Well, I don't know how many studies we've looked at, how many times we have looked at the waste, fraud and abuse. And we appreciate that that's a very important thing to cut. 

But I just want to talk about one of the things that gets covered as waste, fraud and abuse. This is a store in my district. We've gotten floods of calls from one part of my district, from constituents, about a little tiny grocery store at the risk of closing because USDA has revoked their SNAP license.

Now we know how difficult it is to find a grocery store, how many food deserts there are, how many food stores don't have fresh fruits and vegetables. This store has been around for 33 years. It's a pillar of the neighborhood. They made a mistake. They accidentally allowed a sale of tissues and dish soap, estimated around $10, which was ineligible for SNAP, as all of you would know.

So they received a $5,700 fine. A $5,700 fine. For a small business owner. They understood the consequences. They arranged a plan, but there was some confusion around the payment, the payment date, they were late on a payment. Their license has now been revoked. As a result, the store isn't sure if it's going to be able to remain open.

About a fourth of their sales, I think, are SNAP sales and it's also a critical resource for those communities. So, I know that every source of waste, fraud and abuse isn't exactly like this. But if we're going to account for all of these in our total numbers, and we're going to say that these small grocery stores, we should be putting them out of business? That's just not reasonable. 

Another big concern I have is that we've already cut our local food purchase agreements at our food banks. We're making more cuts to the emergency food assistance, the TEFAP program, putting a strain on our feeding organizations. These are also cuts to farmers. Some of these were contracts with farmers to deliver food to our local food banks, to our school lunch programs.

And now we're going to cut SNAP benefits? Those are more farmers. Our SNAP sales at farmers markets and farm stands in Maine is about 5 to $600,000 a year. Now, maybe if you're from California, that doesn't sound like much, but those are critically important programs for our farmers. We use the Nutrition Incentive program to provide Harvest Bucks. Wonderful way to get more healthy fruits and vegetables.

This increases SNAP total spending at our farmers markets to around $900,000 a year. Every dollar is important here. There are 50 Maine farmers in Maine that accept SNAP, so that continues to add more farms where people can get healthy fruits and vegetables. I'm worried about all these.

I won't support any cuts in the reconciliation bill or our farm bill that takes away money from low-income households, and they're not always what we would think of as low income. Many of these are two-earner families. People who go to work, go to work every day, but don't have enough money to put on the table to make sure they can afford food, particularly with skyrocketing costs. 

And now we're talking about tariffs on our food. So I know I'm getting calls in my office from the people who are already worried about the cost of food, who are struggling at the grocery store and who are already saying, now you're going to cut my SNAP benefits next? You know, where do I turn? How do I make ends meet?

So, I didn't get a chance to ask you all a question, but I want you all to know I appreciate you very much. I know you put in a long day, as I said, you bring a lot of valuable information to all of us and provide an important discussion.

And with that, I yield back my time. And I thank the chair and the ranking member.

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