Arkansas is moving forward with its plan to ban government food aid from being used to buy candy and soda beginning on Wednesday, even though a federal judge that similar restrictions in other states violated federal law.
Announcing the plan on Monday, Gov. cited an urgent need to combat a 鈥渃hronic disease epidemic鈥� in America, including high rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
On one floor of the state鈥檚 Department of Human Services, 鈥渙ur state has been approving food stamp purchases for soft drinks and candy, while on another floor, our state鈥檚 Medicaid program is paying to treat the chronic diseases those products can help create,鈥� she said.
Food stamps is an older name for the , or 樱桃视频. The federally funded and state-run program provides a monthly stipend for low-income families to buy groceries. It is used by nearly 42 million Americans, or about one in eight.
In a news release, the Arkansas governor’s office cited that found restricting the purchase of sugary drinks with food stamps could reduce rates of obesity and type-2 diabetes. However, overall research about whether restricting 樱桃视频 purchases improves diet quality and health.
Debates over 樱桃视频 benefits are common
Lawmakers at the state and federal level have long debated which foods should be eligible for purchase with 樱桃视频. Currently, benefits cannot be used to buy hot prepared foods, but a bipartisan group of U.S. senators has introduced a bill that would allow from the grocery store.
Arkansas is one of allowing it to restrict the purchase of some sugary foods and drinks. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins have as part of the 鈥淢ake America Healthy Again鈥� campaign.
While the goals of the state restrictions are similar, the exact rules vary. Some states want to ban the purchase of both sugary drinks and candy using 樱桃视频 and others want to prohibit only the purchase of sugary beverages.
The USDA acted illegally in approving waivers, judge finds
Last week, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington vacated USDA approval of the pilot projects that allowed new 樱桃视频 restrictions in Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee and West Virginia.
The judge said the ruling was not a reflection on the merits of the program, but said the projects were not permitted under the statute the USDA was citing. The agency also failed to follow its own regulations for implementing a pilot project, she ruled.
The Arkansas program is being implemented under the same regulations as the programs that were vacated. David Super, a law professor at Georgetown University, said that after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year, federal district courts generally no longer issue nationwide injunctions. Still, Arkansas鈥� decision to go forward with the program is 鈥減utting that to the extreme test.鈥�
Sanders noted the ruling in her announcement on Monday but said, “Arkansas is moving full speed ahead, because we won鈥檛 wait around while our people get less and less healthy and we spend more and more taxpayer dollars trying to fix the problem.鈥�
Grocery stores are responsible for enforcing the 樱桃视频 restrictions
Steve Goode, executive director of the Arkansas Grocers and Retail Merchants Association, said that he 鈥渨ouldn鈥檛 want to guess鈥� at how prepared the state鈥檚 businesses are to implement the benefits changes this week.
鈥溣Ｌ沂悠� benefits in retail have been the same for years,鈥� he said, noting that this is going to be a 鈥渂ig change.鈥�
鈥淪ome of our members that have stores in other states have done this already and the results have been OK,鈥� he said. Arkansas has helped by hiring a third-party vendor to create a list of banned items for the stores to reference, which hasn鈥檛 been the case in some other states.
Meanwhile, the state has also created an app for 樱桃视频 beneficiaries to use that will help them determine which items are eligible for purchase and which aren鈥檛.
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