The House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, charged with authoring the spending bill for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), unveiled a fiscal year (FY) 2020 agriculture appropriations bill yesterday that would provide new funding for a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) milk incentive program.

“Thanks to the work of Appropriations Committee leaders like Congressmen Mark Pocan (D-WI), Mike Simpson (R-ID), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), John Moolenaar (R-MI) and Pete Aguilar (D-CA), the bill allocated $1 million for the milk incentive program, formally called the Healthy Fluid Milk Incentives Projects program,” said Tony Eberhard, IDFA vice president of legislative affairs.

Access to More Milk
The new program would allow participants to purchase more milk with SNAP benefits, enhancing their diet with milk’s nine essential nutrients. Improving SNAP participants’ access to milk through incentives empowers families to make nutritious choices, helping them support a healthy lifestyle and reduce the risk of disease.

The SNAP milk incentive program was one of the three joint priorities of IDFA and the National Milk Producers Federation that was included in the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, also known as the 2018 Farm Bill. The 2018 Farm Bill authorized the creation of the Healthy Fluid Milk Incentives Projects program, but funding for the program must be provided by annual appropriations bills. 

Fly-in Makes a Difference
"Funding for the SNAP milk incentive was one of the issues IDFA leaders brought to the Hill during the February fly-in,” said Michael Dykes, D.V.M., president and CEO of IDFA. “I am so proud of our members for helping us to secure this important funding. It’s another success story for IDFA strategic fly-ins!"

The purpose of the SNAP incentive program is to develop and test methods of increasing the purchase and consumption of fluid milk by SNAP households. Now that the agriculture appropriations bill has been approved by the Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, it will be taken up by the full House Appropriations Committee for further consideration.

For more information, contact Eberhard at teberhard@idfa.org.