DC Journal – Will Congress Add New Regulatory Burdens on Small Businesses?
With a government shutdown looming and inflation continuing to soar, small businesses are paying the price. From supply chain shortages to burdensome red tape, it’s become increasingly important to support free-market, pro-growth policies to keep our driving economic industry alive. Despite this, some legislators are pushing for more regulation of small businesses – from grocery to convenience stores.
Included in the Farm Bill is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), our nation’s largest food assistance program, lending a helping hand to low-income families so they can afford food essentials at the grocery store. SNAP participants purchase groceries with their SNAP benefits at about 248,000 retailers—from superstores to farmers markets—across the country.
These stores are also essential for workers and families, particularly in rural and urban areas. The large number and wide variety of authorized retailers also help ensure that low-income families across the country can regularly access a store where they can redeem their SNAP dollars for food.
The vast majority of SNAP-authorized retailers—about 80 percent—are smaller stores. These include many locally owned businesses, such as private groceries, convenience stores, dairies, butchers, bakeries, and farm stands.
Unfortunately, there’s a well-intentioned but short-sighted push by some Republicans on Capitol Hill to add new burdens onto grocery and family-owned convenience stores in the upcoming Farm Bill–our nation’s most comprehensive agriculture and anti-hunger omnibus bill.
The proposed so-called SNAP Pilot Program would restrict eligible food items approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This five-state pilot program would require the SNAP benefits to be used to purchase only “nutrient-dense” foods aligned with dietary guidelines. While their goal is to eliminate snacks, candy, and sodas from SNAP recipients’ grocery carts, it also opens the bureaucratic Pandora’s box in terms of what is “nutrient-dense” and how this program will be enforced in the real world. This rule would only force small businesses–including grocery stores–to decipher what should go in and out of a SNAP recipient’s grocery cart, effectively making cashiers the new grocery police.
Recently, the National Grocers Association (NGA) along with 2,472 undersigned businesses and trade associations sent a letter to top congressional leadership, calling on them to oppose this SNAP restriction. They wrote, “Grocery stores’ cashiers will become the food police, telling parents what they can and cannot feed their families.” Not only will this drive up food costs, but it will hamstring thousands of small businesses in miles of red tape.
In addition, the government would need to begin to categorize more than 600,000 products and update the growing list yearly. Would whole milk be considered healthy? Or what about dark chocolate or diet soda? Would a mom on SNAP be able to buy white bread, peanut butter, and jelly to pack for her kids’ lunches? The list of questions presents a number of issues that add more hurdles for businesses.
Small businesses do not need more regulations, and families do not need the government telling them what’s best to put in their grocery carts. They’re capable of deciding for themselves. Elected officials should carefully consider the impact on small businesses before moving forward with this program.