Why Legislative Advocacy?
Welcome to state legislative advocacy season, folks. In many states, this is the limited window of time (often just a few short months) when major state policy changes can happen - for better or for worse.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a federal nutrition program where basic eligibility rules and administrative requirements are decided at a federal level. Even so, states have many policy choices to make; sometimes as a result of previous Congressional compromises, called “state options.” And because states directly administer SNAP, they have a huge amount of control over the SNAP enrollment experience – including how difficult or demeaning application and renewal processes may be.
State legislative season generally has two big impacts on SNAP: (1) funding levels and (2) policy provisions. Here are two concrete examples:
Funding
When a SNAP agency’s funding gets cut (including staffing reductions, pay freezes, etc.) SNAP access is likely to suffer. Sometimes these impacts are immediate, but more often, there is a slow decline after years of starving the SNAP agency of resources. Sooner or later a crisis will hit (see Alaska, Tennessee, and Texas) and policymakers will demand to know “how did this happen?!”
Policy
When state legislators write SNAP policy provisions into state law, it restricts the administrative flexibility that Congress intended to provide to the state Executive branch (i.e. Governors and their Cabinet officials) who are responsible for administering SNAP. Such policy changes can either expand or contract the SNAP program by removing or erecting barriers to access.
Unfortunately, there are anti-SNAP lobbying forces in state capitals who spend significant resources to convince states to adopt the most restrictive (and sometimes cruel) SNAP state options. Oftentimes these lobbyists manipulate state legislators who don’t actually know much about SNAP, but are convinced that there is a political upside to picking on the poor. When anti-SNAP bills are introduced, state SNAP advocates are often forced to drop other important work they are doing to stop these harmful provisions from making it into state law (for example, in West Virginia).
The good news? Many state advocates are quite good at this.
State advocates know the same old racist, classist tropes that get pulled out year after year to deride public assistance and blame low-wage workers for needing SNAP to supplement their wages. Advocates push back with facts and historical context and robust coalition partnerships. Advocates educate through legislative visits and community meetings and the press. The very best legislative advocacy efforts - both defensive and offensive - are deeply rooted in and led by community members who know the experience of hunger and poverty firsthand and disprove the stereotypes peddled by lawmakers.
Legislative defense doesn’t always go well though. Sometimes advocates are out-funded, out-maneuvered, or arrive on the scene too late to make a difference. Sometimes advocates do *all the things* and it still doesn’t matter because the political forces at play are too strong. When this happens, we mourn, we learn, and we gear up for the next opportunity to educate and influence. We are in this for the long-run.
The biggest risks I see are in states where there isn’t a long-term advocate or organization funded to be the memory keeper and reminder of why legislative bodies who meddle with SNAP for political gain only end up with rising rates of hunger - and the associated impact of lower school achievement, lower economic gains and higher healthcare costs - to show for it. In these places, my team and I do our best to support organizations on the ground at the moment and coach up new leaders as quickly as possible so they can be the advocates of the future that every community needs.
Do you engage in (or fund) legislative advocacy - either offense or defensive - to protect and strengthen SNAP? What lessons have you learned and what advice do you have for the advocates of tomorrow? Let us know at info@rcahillconsulting.com and we’ll share your responses in a future post!