Washington, D.C., May 19, 2025 – Bread for the World issued the following statement on the House of Representative’s budget reconciliation package, which is expected to be voted on this week.
“The House budget reconciliation package does little to help the most vulnerable families and instead includes numerous provisions that will push millions of children deeper into hunger and poverty. Bread for the World opposes this harmful package and strongly urges lawmakers to reject it,” said Rev. Eugene Cho, president and CEO of Bread for the World.
The reconciliation package makes significant changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in order to cut $290 billion from the program over ten years – the largest single reduction of domestic food assistance ever enacted. The bulk of the funding cuts come from pushing costs of the program on to states, imposing strict work requirements on unmarried couples, single parents, and other guardians with children over six and older adults up to age 64, and limiting future benefit increases.
On May 13, Rev. Cho sent a letter to House Agriculture Committee Chairman G.T. Thompson, Ranking Member Angie Craig, and members of the Committee outlining Bread’s concerns with the harmful SNAP provisions.
“SNAP is the United States’ most important anti-hunger program. Each month, SNAP helps 42 million Americans put food on the table for families. In fact, 40 percent of SNAP recipients are children. Make no mistake, these SNAP funding cuts will harm children and families,” said Cho.
Most states will not be able to afford cost-sharing a percentage of the SNAP benefits their residents receive, especially poorer states like West Virginia and New Mexico, which also have high SNAP participation rates. States will be forced to substantially reduce SNAP benefits or remove qualified people from the program – including families with children.
“Bread knows the value and dignity of work – and SNAP rules already recognize that by implementing work requirements for participants who are able. But imposing work requirements on single parents with children seven and older ignores the realities of low-wage jobs, erratic work schedules, and unaffordable childcare. Seven-year-olds are still young children and need adult supervision at all times. The reconciliation package also expands existing work requirements to older adults who face their own challenges,” said Rev. Heather Taylor, managing director of Bread for the World.
Freezing future benefit increases through the Thrifty Food Plan as food prices continue to rise will push millions of children and their families into hunger.
The House reconciliation package also fails to extend the expanded child tax credit (CTC) to the families who need it most. An estimated 17 million children, 1 in 4 children in the U.S., will not benefit from the modest $500 per child CTC increase because their families earn too little to receive it. Additionally, an estimated 4.5 million U.S. citizen and legal permanent resident children who have parents that are immigrants would become ineligible for the CTC under the new guidelines.
“The reason the 2021 CTC expansion was so effective at reducing child hunger and poverty is because it enabled the lowest-income families with children to receive the credit. This ‘expansion’ leaves out the most vulnerable children and will do little to reduce childhood hunger and poverty. We ask lawmakers to correct this mistake,” said Cho.
“God calls on us to care for the most vulnerable among us. This reconciliation package falls well short of that. ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did to me.’ Matthew 25:40,” added Cho.
