West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey, left, holds a letter of intent to request changes to the state's SNAP program next to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr on Friday in Martinsburg, West Virginia. (Stephanie Scarbrough/AP)
MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s quest to reshape food policy in America took him to an event here with the state’s Republican governor, who announced Friday his intent to seek the federal government’s help in barring the use of food stamps to buy soda.
“Taxpayer dollars should be targeted toward nutritious foods,” Gov. Patrick Morrisey said at a lectern emblazoned with a “MAHA Starts Here” sign.
Kennedy, the nation’s top health official, has made new restrictions on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) a key pillar of his Make America Healthy Again agenda to tackle chronic disease and childhood illness. He and his allies have argued that federal dollars shouldn’t go toward purchasing products they say are major drivers of poor health and obesity, and lawmakers in more than a dozen statehouses are considering similar bills.
Anti-hunger advocates typically oppose the proposal, contending it amounts to punishing the poor by taking choices away from them. The effort has also been met with fierce resistance from the beverage industry, which is lobbying against the plans.
“What’s unhelpful about this whole conversation is that soda is not driving obesity,” said Merideth Potter, senior vice president at the American Beverage Association, the industry’s lobbying group. “We’ve become this easy punching bag.”
Standing inside a school gym in West Virginia on Friday, Kennedy said he had a message for governors around the country: “Get in line behind Governor Morrisey,” he said. “Apply for a waiver to my agency, and we’re going to give it to you.”
While states will need to get federal permission to implement the ban, it’s the U.S. Department of Agriculture led by Secretary Brooke Rollins — and not Kennedy’s health department — that administers SNAP and approves waivers to make changes to the program.
“I look forward to receiving Governor Morrisey’s SNAP pilot request and will work swiftly to make certain West Virginia is equipped with the technical assistance and expertise to move forward,” Rollins, who was not at the event, said in a statement.
Calley Means, a White House senior adviser, said Kennedy is discussing proposals to ban soda in SNAP with more than 15 governors.
“We’re not saying anyone can’t drink Coke,” Means told reporters. “We’re saying no government subsidies for Coke.”
In December, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) announced she would seek permission to prohibit using SNAP for “junk food.” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, signed legislation Thursday to request a waiver to prohibit soft drinks in the program. And Morrisey is pairing his effort with an expansion of work requirements for SNAP recipients, a more typical Republican policy.
Seth DiStefano, senior policy outreach director of the left-leaning West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, said he was concerned people would leave the state to do their shopping, warning that he believed that could lead grocery stores to close.
Some of Kennedy’s messages on food — such as stripping ultra-processed food from school cafeterias and cracking down on food dye — have found support on both the right and the left. But his tenure atop the Department of Health and Human Services has been divisive.
Friday’s event came a day after Kennedy announced that HHS is cutting nearly a quarter of its workforce and consolidating several of its departments. The move drew condemnation from public health advocates who argue losing staff will not make America healthier.
Kennedy, the founder of a prominent anti-vaccine group, has faced scrutiny from public health experts and Democrats who want the nation’s top health official to do more to urge vaccination amid a growing measles outbreak. Kennedy has said he is not anti-vaccine, and the White House has said HHS has “facilitated and consistently promoted” vaccination as the most effective preventative measure against measles.