The Kansas Legislature and its committees take up tons of bad bills every year.
Some of them make sense but would have destructive consequences (everyone likes tax cuts, for instance, but if you cut them too much, government won’t function). Some of them are motivated by outdated moral or religious codes (hello pot prohibition and anti-trans legislation). But some of them? Some of them are simply dumb.
Such was the case on Thursday, when the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee held a hearing on Senate Bill 501, a measure that would restrict access to an array of public assistance programs, such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The bill’s main advocate wasn’t even a Kansas legislator: It was the Florida-based Opportunity Solutions Project, the lobbying branch of Koch-linked Foundation for Government Accountability. And the cost of a bill meant to restrict access to lifesaving programs for families? Some $27 million for administration.
Just imagine: Kansas taxpayers are being asked to pay tens of millions to kick people off programs that help them go to the doctor and afford food for their families. That’s ludicrous.
On the Kansas Reflector podcast, I was joined by Kansas Appleseed’s anti-hunger campaign director Haley Kottler to talk about the bill, its potential effects and what went down during the hearing.
“What I heard from proponents of this bill was Kansans need to go back to work, and public assistance and SNAP food assistance should be for the ‘truly needy,’ ” Kottler said. “And there was an emphasis on the ‘truly needy.’ And what I want to say to that is one in eight Kansans are truly needy. We’re just, hopefully, we’re getting out of a pandemic, we’re digging out of it. But you see the rising gas prices. I’m seeing inflation at the grocery store.”
Kottler was citing data from Feeding America that shows a staggering one in eight Kansans face hunger. That works out to 351,090 people overall, with 120,090 of them being children. A morally appalling one in six children face hunger.
So think about SB501 and think about this moment in Kansas politics. We have a nearly $3 billion budget surplus. Lawmakers set aside nearly a billion of that to attract a mystery business to the state. They’re debating other carveouts and giveaways through the tax code, to state retirees, and shiny objects that catch their fancy.
But when it comes to hungry Kansans? Time to kick them off the rolls. When it comes to Kansans without health insurance? Forget Medicaid expansion. Let’s try restrictions.
These statistics aren’t just numbers. They’re people who are suffering and overloaded.
“I was down in Winfield to visit a good friend of mine,” Kottler told me. “She’s on food assistance, and her daughter was just in the hospital with a severe infection. And we talked a lot about just what it’s like to be poor right now. And what her daughter’s hospital stay compounded on everything else that is going on in her life, right? It threw a crisis into the middle of a family that’s already struggling.
“And we got to the topic of what was going on with my job. And we were talking about, you know, legislation like this. And I casually mentioned, ‘Oh, they’re trying to put more barriers around food assistance.’ And my friend was in tears after I told this to her. … And in that moment, I knew how critical it is that we put together legislation that actually will help families.”
Can you really say any more than that? Can you really add anything else?
“SNAP food assistance is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,” Kottler added. “It helps folks supplement their grocery bills, it helps folks get back on their feet, it helps them just that little extra amount to put food on the tables for themselves and their families.”
In other words, these programs aren’t about rewarding people who don’t work or who somehow fit your definition of laziness. They’re actually pro-work. As Kansas Action for Children has repeatedly stated through the years, restrictions on anti-poverty programs harm caregivers’ ability to work and provide for their families.
