August 6, 2026 — Following the Senate Agriculture Committee majority’s failure to pass their proposed “Agricultural Act of 2026,” otherwise known as the Farm Bill, anti-hunger advocates dismissed the Republican proposal as yet another missed opportunity to address the real issues facing millions of Americans who are suffering in the growing SNAP crisis. Leaders at MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger celebrated Committee Democrats’ refusal to accept a false compromise and urged the members to only advance legislation that would meaningfully address both the dangerous budget shortfalls facing state legislatures and the crippling hunger facing millions of Americans.
MAZON Vice President of Public Affairs Liza Lieberman stated:
“Committee Republicans want us to believe that a one-year delay of SNAP benefit cost shifts to states is a reasonable compromise for food insecure families who were crushed by the Republican SNAP cuts last year, but it’s just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. The structural changes in last year’s tax and budget bill have already pushed more than 4.5 million people off of SNAP, 11 percent of participants nationwide. The impact of the pending cost shifts to states is already devastating, with some states reportedly contemplating dropping out of the program entirely. Let’s be perfectly clear — this partisan proposal would not mitigate this crisis.
“With millions of people losing critical SNAP benefits, the idea that we are forced to fight for crumbs is absurd. A one-year delay in cost shifts will do little to help lawmakers on the ground scrambling to find state dollars, and is in fact an admission of how arbitrary and shortsighted the Republican’s policy changes last summer were. They are once again trying to minimize a catastrophe of their own making rather than take responsibility for the damage wrought by President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.’
“Hungry Americans do not need a one-year delay; this delay must be at minimum two years, and ideally forever. This is a critical opportunity for Congress to repair and restore our country’s most impactful program in the fight against hunger. Until that happens, we continue to call on Committee members to oppose this toothless proposal and fight for the millions of Americans who are scrambling every day to feed themselves and their families.”
Sen. Cory Booker addressed the ongoing SNAP crisis during today’s markup, stating:
“When you make bureaucracy more onerous for poor people, more paperwork to fill out, they drop off the system […] What frustrates me is that from January 2025 to now, we have seen hunger and food insecurity skyrocket in our country. Food pantries in every state have more demand, not less demand [….] This is the wrong way to go about fixing the problem, if you are seeing the very people that the program was designed to serve ending up more hungry.”
During today’s hearings, Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar entered into the Congressional record a letter sent by a MAZON-led coalition of 35 national faith-based organizations, calling on the Senate to reject the House legislation and pass a Farm Bill that meaningfully addresses hunger in America. The coalition made clear that it’s literally impossible for charity alone to feed 47 million people, and that food pantries, emergency funds, and congregation-based networks must be a last resort instead of a first option for families. The letter firmly stated that the federal government has a moral duty to be part of that response, and a Farm Bill that fails to restore SNAP is a failure of that commitment. The letter, along with all signatories, can be found here.
MAZON’s prior statement on the introduction of the Senate Farm Bill can be found here.
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Inspired by Jewish values and ideals, MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger is a national advocacy organization working to end hunger among people of all faiths and backgrounds in the United States and Israel. For more information on MAZON, please visit mazon.org.