As Trump cuts hit food benefits, CT advocates look to make up the loss. It’s a $40M plan

Hartford Courant – Wednesday, March 18, 2026
By Christopher Keating

With less than two months left in the legislative session, advocates are scrambling at the state Capitol for a piece of a $500 million fund in emergency money set aside by the legislature.

Advocates called for spending $40 million to create a state-funded food program for veterans and others who could lose their benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP. About $330 million of the original $500 million fund is remaining as lawmakers try to combat cuts by the federal government.

New federal eligibility requirements that are being enacted by the federal government for food benefits will impact thousands of Connecticut residents, including the homeless; young adults who become too old for the foster care system, adults diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder who are not classified as disabled; asylum seekers and refugees, among others.

Sen. Matt Lesser, a Middletown Democrat who co-chairs the human services committee, joined with advocates to push for the money as a stop-gap against the federal cuts under a bill known as HR 1 that was passed by the Republican-controlled Congress.

“HR 1 took a wrecking ball to the food safety net around the country,” Lesser said. “I want to talk about a couple of key populations that we want to serve. We are in a war right now in Iran. Under previous law, if you were a veteran and you were low income, you qualified for food stamps, for SNAP. HR 1 took that away. What we’re saying is we think that returning veterans who may be disabled but have not yet proven their disability status should be able to get food. They should not be hungry in this country. That is a shame. That is an obscenity, and we should be doing something about it.”

But Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration is not supporting the SNAP provisions in Senate Bill 497 based on costs and concerns about running the program.

State social services Commissioner Andrea Barton Reeves said in written testimony that the “annual costs would likely exceed $83.8 million, with costs continuing to increase as more newly eligible individuals enroll in the program.”

In addition, the program “would cost at least $1.2 million in design and implementation efforts to build this complex new program in its current eligibility system and that does not include the additional work necessary to identify, enroll, and track newly eligible” food recipients.

Beside the money factors, she said the department is raising concerns about the difficulties of identifying and tracking which recipients are veterans, along with factors such as “how the proposed program will intersect with federal requirements, whether some individuals may shift from federally-funded benefits to state-funded benefits, and how to design processes such as renewals and periodic reviews that current SNAP enrollees are subject to.”

A controversial section of Senate Bill 497 calls for eliminating a key question on the current SNAP application. The question is : “Do you or any member of your household have a probation or parole violation?”

House Republican Leader Vincent Candelora of North Branford said the bill would thus allow parole violators to receive food benefits.

“While Connecticut families struggle with one of the highest costs of living in the nation, Democrats are focused on changing the rules to allow criminals who violate the terms of their probation or parole, or who commit new crimes while under supervision, to access taxpayer-funded benefits,” Candelora said. “Rather than taking bold steps to make Connecticut more affordable, Democrats are content to keep growing government dependency and the cost of programs that serve their agenda, not Connecticut residents who find it too expensive to live here.”

As Connecticut has been rolling up budget surpluses since Lamont took office in 2019, some lawmakers say the state needs to release money that has been building up through the years.

The legislature decided last year to create the $500 million fund that would normally have been used to pay down pension debt in the same way that the state has set aside about $10 billion since 2021 in additional supplemental funds into the funds for state employees and public school teachers. The $500 million fund was set aside in the state rainy day fund for fiscal emergencies, which increased from the previous $4.3 billion to $4.8 billion.

In essence, lawmakers raised the state’s rainy day fund to the equivalent of 23% of the general fund, which was up from the previous maximum of 18%, officials said.

Sen. Paul Honig, a Democrat who co-chairs the legislature’s veterans committee, has been focused on saving SNAP benefits for about 9,000 veterans statewide who have received benefits without any work requirements.

“For the federal government to put obstacles in the way of veterans returning to civilian life who need food assistance is just absolutely shameful,” said Honig, who represents the Farmington Valley and nearby towns in the 8th District. “This proposal is going to ensure, despite what the federal government is trying to do, that Connecticut veterans will not go hungry when they transition back into civilian life.”

Coralys Santana of the Connecticut Project Action Fund said about 38,000 Connecticut residents are at risk of losing food benefits.

“Families are doing everything right and still can’t catch a break,” Santana said. “Here’s the truth: we cannot food bank our way out of this crisis. Food pantries are already stretched thin. Hunger doesn’t wait for a budget negotiation.”

Separately, advocates are also seeking ways to spend from a separate $500 million pot of money that was essentially established by Lamont to fund a tax rebate of $200 per person. Democrats took that proposal to mean that there was $500 million to negotiate and then spend as part of the overall $28.7 billion budget for the fiscal year that starts on July 1.

House Democrats called this week to spend about $100 million to $150 million of the $500 million to help pay for local education costs in the public schools so that cities and towns don’t need to raise property taxes. If that is accepted in the negotiations, then Lamont’s rebate of $200 per person would be reduced.

But no final decisions have been made, and the totals are subject to the final budget compromises that are expected to be made before the 2026 legislative session adjourns on May 6.

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