Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.) proposed a bill on Thursday that would prevent people on welfare from using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — a.k.a. Food Stamps — to buy certain types of junk food and soda.
“If someone wants to buy junk food on their own dime, that’s up to them. But what we’re saying is, don’t ask the taxpayer to pay for it and then also expect the taxpayer to pick up the tab for the resulting health consequences,” said Rep. Brecheen on X.
Brecheen said in a statement that his bill is in line with requests made by President Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of State, former Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
He argued that, while people should be free to buy junk food with their own money, they should not be able to buy candy and soda with taxpayer funds.
Those expenses could give rise to future medical bills incurred through complications of an unhealthy diet, which would likely also be paid for by welfare benefits such as Medicaid.
The bill is modeled after an identical bill proposed in 2023 by then-Sen. Rubio.
Brecheen gave the current text of the bill to Fox News for review.
It prohibits the use of food stamps on “soft drinks, candy, ice cream, prepared desserts such as cakes, pies, cookies, or similar products,” adding to the existing ban on SNAP benefits for tobacco and alcohol.
The bill also empowers the HHS Secretary to determine which items contain enough nutritional value to be considered food for the purposes of SNAP benefits, suggesting that forms of junk food other than candy, dessert, and soft drinks could also fall under the ban.
Brecheen pointed out that over 42 million Americans, or roughly one in eight people, are using SNAP benefits and cited data showing that a staggering 20 percent of all SNAP benefits are spent on junk food.
Sugar-sweetened beverages, like soda and other soft drinks, made up 10 percent of all SNAP expenditures, according to the data.
That data does not differentiate between actual Americans and the unknown number of illegal immigrants participating in the welfare program.
He also pointed out that roughly 75 percent of all U.S. adults and 33 percent of children are overweight or obese and that federal healthcare programs spend $400 billion per year on obesity-related diseases.
Brecheen’s bill received support from seven Republican co-sponsors, but no Democrats signed on to support the effort to make America healthy again.
