Under a Trump administration proposal that would reduce the number of people who have access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the formal name for food stamps, nearly one million children could lose their automatic eligibility for free school lunches, ABC 13 reports.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s analysis, half of the students would have to pay a reduced price of 40 cents for school lunch and 30 cents for breakfast. Approximately 40,000 would have to pay the full price, according to each district’s scale.
Instead of receiving free lunch, students from households with an annual income of between 130% and 185% of the federal poverty level—or no more than roughly $47,650—would have to pay a reduced price.
Additionally, the new rule could strip more than 3 million people of their benefits, CNN reports.
“The internal analysis released by the Department of Agriculture shows that the impact of its proposed rule would be even worse than we had feared,” Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) said Wednesday. “Even for those who remain eligible, forcing low-income families to navigate the burdensome paperwork will inevitably lead to eligible children losing access to a critical source of daily nutrition.”
The Trump administration has attempted three times to reduce or limit funding for SNAP, the New York Times reports. Amid growing criticism of the rule, a public comment period will be reopened for 14 days so the public can weigh in the Agriculture Department’s analysis.