Last month, the Hispanic Leadership Fund released an issue brief diving into the unintended consequences of limiting food choices under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).  The brief explained how proposed restrictions would harm households facing economic hardship.

Proponents of such restrictions cannot show any health benefits for recipients, which directly undermines their argument.  And yet they are determined to hand more power to government bureaucrats to regulate food choices based on vague and overly broad perceptions about nutritional content. 

Former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. recently proposed SNAP restrictions on certain beverages, but also failed to cite anything properly substantive.

The result of such restrictions would be unintended consequences like added administrative costs, shifting regulatory burdens to the states, and more tangled bureaucratic processes.  That would be bad policy.  

Other important voices have weighed in on this topic.

A full copy of HLF’s issue brief can be viewed here.