Bipartisan Group of Lawmakers Appears Ready to Resist Gov. Lee's Plan to Keep Tennessee Kids Hungry
Legislation would require state to participate in Sun Bucks program
While Gov. Bill Lee refused federal funds to help curb childhood hunger for two consecutive years now, a group of lawmakers appears eager to force the state to do the right thing and feed hungry kids.
The Sun Bucks program provides an EBT boost over the summer to families with children who would qualify for free/reduced meals at school. The idea is to ensure that the EBT amount helps assist families in feeding kids who normally eat at school.
But Lee doesn’t like the program.
Instead, Lee’s administration will create its own program - spending the same amount of state money to feed a lot less kids.
“Instead of serving 700,000 Tennessee children through Summer EBT, TDHS’s program will reach a max of 25,000 children. Despite spending nearly as much as it would take to serve the entire state, the Tennessee program will reach less than 4% of the children that received Summer EBT in 2024.”
Lee rejected $75 million in federal funds that would have supported a program to add funds to EBT cards for families whose kids receive free/reduced lunch during the school year.
Now, however, a group of lawmakers may force him to reconsider, as Tennessee Lookout reports:
In an apparent rebuke to the governor, two rural Republicans — Sen. Paul Bailey of Sparta and Rep. Michael Hale of Sparta — are sponsoring a bill to require the state to apply for the federal Summer EBT funding. In past years, the program has distributed $84 million in federal funding to low-income families to help them buy their children food at the grocery store when school is out.
A bipartisan group of 30 lawmakers have signed onto the measure (HB1835/SB1911). The proposed legislation has been approved unanimously in every committee that has considered it thus far as lawmakers faced pressure from constituents, educators, county mayors, pediatricians and faith leaders to restore the funding.