Action needed ASAP - Ask Senate to reimburse victims of SNAP theft!

Action alert for this week: Ask Senate leadership & your Senator to replace stolen SNAP!

Thank you to all who have advocated on this issue. Right now, the state legislature is acting on a FY25 “supplemental” budget. The Governor and the House included funds for chip EBT cards - which is great! But, neither included funds to replace stolen SNAP. It will take months for DTA to issue chip cards. In the meantime, families desperately need reimbursement. Even a partial replacement would make a significant difference for victims of theft struggling to put food on the table or pay their bills when SNAP is stolen.

This supplemental budget may be our last chance this year to try to get reimbursement for victims of SNAP theft. It is critical we ramp up the noise! Please join us in taking action this week (ideally before Wednesday, June 11):

• Send a letter to President Spilka and Chair Rodrigues asking the Senate to include funds to replace stolen SNAP in their version of the FY25 supplemental budget. Here is a template letter.
• Contact your state Senator(s) by phone and/or email, and ask them to share with President Spilka and Chair Rodrigues they support replacement funds!
  • Here's a fact sheet for Senators
• Here's data on the approximate number of households whose SNAP was stolen and not replaced, by city and town.

Please let Vicky (vnegus@mlri.org) know if you can reach out to Senate leadership/your state Senator(s) or if you have questions!