Tennessee Latest Target as Pressure on SNAP Programs Intensifies

The pressure has been building as access issues continue to plague the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the anti-hunger program which approximately 41 million low-income Americans rely on a month. 

In one of the most recent examples of just how difficult this program can be to implement and distribute, a cohort of legal organizations and law firms have collectively sued Tennessee’s Department of Health Services over its failure in distributing these critical and time-sensitive benefits. 

The lawsuit details the real-life impact that these processing issues have had on individuals in Tennessee, including the negative health issues that can arise when benefits are suddenly terminated or access to healthy food is no longer an option. Food scarcity, as the lawsuit shows, results in a wide-range of impacts beyond physical health, not only leaving the individual and his or her family hungry, but can even result in bills no longer being paid, bankruptcy and eviction. 

While problems distributing SNAP benefits have plagued Tenneessee’s Department of Health Services, the Volunteer State certainly does not stand alone. Hurricane Helene destroyed important food banks in North Carolina and worsened food scarcity in a state that was already struggling to process applications for SNAP benefits in five of its counties. Texas has sounded the alarm on its inability to deliver benefits as it has struggled to find funding to overhaul IT systems necessary to support the SNAP program. 

Unfortunately, at the end of 2024, Congress failed to seize on an opportunity to help address some of these issues and neglected to adopt the SNAP Staffing Flexibility Act of 2023, which would allow state SNAP programs to use private contractors to allow for quicker, more efficient processing of SNAP applications. Instead, so far, Congress has left states to struggle to implement this complicated, but vital, program.

The need for reform is clear, well beyond this latest class action lawsuit in Tennessee. The 119th Congress now has a fresh opportunity to address this issue and pass legislation that allows for SNAP benefits to reach those who need it most more quickly and at a lower cost to the U.S. taxpayer.