June 02, 2025 01:18 PM UTC

Colorado Braces for Hunger Problems Under "Big, Beautiful Bill"

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• by: Colorado Pols

Massive cuts to Medicaid have generated much of the attention in the weeks following House Republican approval of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax bill, but that’s far from the only serious problem that Colorado could be facing if the legislation becomes law in something close to its current form.

As Seth Klamann reports for The Denver Post:

President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax bill would jeopardize food assistance for tens of thousands of low-income Coloradans, while requiring the state to pick up tens of millions of dollars in new spending, according to analyses from two think tanks. [Pols emphasis]

Trump and House Republicans’ bill, which passed the U.S. House on May 22, would seek to offset $4.5 trillion in tax cuts in part by cutting nearly $286 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — or SNAP — by 2034.

The reductions would include new work requirements, capping a program that provides dietary planning, shifting more costs to the state, and barring non-permanent residents — including people in the U.S. legally — from accessing the program.

House Republicans — including Colorado Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Windsor) and Gabe Evans (R-Ft. Lupton) — have been using the same basic argument to support cutting SNAP benefits that they are using for Medicaid cuts: Look at all of this waste and abuse we can cut! 

But reality, as Klamann writes, is much different. Among Colorado’s four Republican Members of Congress, only Boebert responded to a request for comment from The Denver Post. We wouldn’t want to try to explain this, either:

Democrats and advocates warn that the bill will instead endanger food access for vulnerable Coloradans, and they point to research showing that work requirements are effective at stripping people of benefits — but not at boosting employment. Roughly 131,000 low-income Coloradans — nearly 20% of the people who receive SNAP — could lose access to the program under the bill’s work requirements, according to the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. That’s among roughly 3.2 million people at risk nationwide.

The bill is “going to increase hunger, I think it’s going to increase hardship,” said Anya Rose, the director of public policy at Hunger Free Colorado. “This is slashing support for 1 in 10 Coloradans who rely on SNAP. And then it’s shifting billions in costs to the states.”

Filling the hole left by Congress, she continued, “would be incredibly difficult.” [Pols emphasis]

Compounding the obvious problem of cutting food benefits for hundreds of thousands of hungry people are the financial issues that would impact Colorado’s budget overall. The Colorado legislature was forced to make $1.2 billion in cuts to balance the state budget this year, and next year things are expected to be even worse.

Klamann breaks out the details in his story for the Post, but the short version is that Colorado could end up needing to add around $300 million in new costs to Colorado’s budget. Thanks to TABOR’s revenue limits, Colorado has limited options for generating the additional funding necessary to support such a large budget item, which means that other cuts to services such as public education or transportation might be necessary in order to keep people from going hungry.

At some point in the near future, state lawmakers could very well end up needing to decide if it is better to let Colorado working families go without food or without health care. For many Coloradans, the answer may be “both.”

But, hey, at least America’s wealthiest people will end up with a tax cut!