President Trump has committed to “Make America Healthy Again.” Part of the solution will involve addressing issues within the federal government’s nutrition assistance programs. His nominees to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) will play a pivotal role in advancing this agenda.
Nearly six in 10 Americans suffer from at least one chronic disease, such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, or hypertension. Heart disease and stroke alone are responsible for approximately one in three deaths in the United States annually. Despite the gravity of these statistics, public discourse has become desensitized to the urgency of the situation, and seldom acknowledges that poor diet and limited activity are the ultimate culprits.
Poor health particularly impacts low-income individuals by limiting workforce participation and weakening ties to employers and professional networks. And unemployment further exacerbates health problems. As a result, low-income individuals facing health challenges are left with limited prospects for upward mobility and significant obstacles to accomplishing their goals.
Federal safety net programs can better serve these individuals by acknowledging the crucial link between poor health and poverty, and prioritizing good health within safety net programs. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) plays a pivotal role and is well positioned to address diet-related diseases in low-income communities that hopefully can extend beyond its reach.
SNAP provides over $100 billion per year in food benefits to more than 40 million low-income Americans. Currently, a sizeable share of these benefits fund unhealthy foods, including sugary beverages and sugar-dense snacks. Undoubtedly, this contributes to disproportionately poor health among SNAP participants compared to others.
Although SNAP still only serves 12.5 percent of the population and represents only a fraction of total food expenditures in the US, its significance is underscored by the participation of over 250,000 retailers, including all of the major grocery chains. By changing what individuals can purchase with SNAP, policymakers would not only improve the health of participating households, but it would also likely lead retailers to supply and market their products differently—having impacts far beyond SNAP alone.
President Trump’s pick for the DHHS Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has made his views on chronic disease and nutrition very clear, vowing to fix a broken system that incentivizes unhealthy behavior. His nomination is encouraging to those who believe in addressing the link between diet and chronic disease through public policy. Among his broader health agenda, he has called for prohibiting the purchase of sugary beverages and processed foods within SNAP.
However, if confirmed, Kennedy will oversee agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, but not SNAP. As legislated by Congress, the Secretary of the USDA oversees SNAP, along with 15 other nutrition assistance programs. In President Trump’s first term, he proposed consolidating SNAP and other nutrition programs into DHHS. Congress could reorganize SNAP—an effective way to reduce redundancy and coordinate better a health agenda—but reorganizing large federal agencies has proven difficult for Congress in the past.
Absent a reorganization, the USDA Secretary will continue to oversee the nation’s nutrition assistance programs while also overseeing agriculture policy. President Trump nominated Brooke Rollins for this role, emphasizing her agriculture credentials and strong support for farmers. However, nutrition policy arguably demands more attention from the USDA Secretary than farm policy does, as 70 percent of the USDA’s budget is allocated to nutrition assistance programs, and 95 percent of that funding is directed toward SNAP.
One of the top priorities should be establishing nutrition standards for SNAP by eliminating funding for sugary beverages and ultra-processed foods. They should also work to better align the federal government’s approach to nutrition and nutrition education. This will require coordination between the DHHS, USDA, and Congress to prioritize nutrition and to establish the right incentives for a healthy food system. An opportunity exists to reshape policy and prioritize efforts to “Make America Healthy Again.” SNAP reform can lead the charge.