House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), the highest ranking Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives, prioritized time in his recent visit to Puerto Rico to promote the need to include the U.S. territory in the U.S. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the primary nationwide nutrition assistance program.
“It’s important to make sure that we provide Puerto Ricans with the assistance necessary to live the highest quality of life here on the island, which is why we’re working together closely to make sure we can engineer a transition from NAP to SNAP, to meet the food security needs of the Puerto Rican people,” said Leader Jeffries.
Jeffries’s statement is consistent with remarks by Senate Minority Leader and fellow New Yorker Charles Schumer (D-NY), who argued last year that Congress “should extend SNAP benefits to our friends in Puerto Rico, who have been excluded from this program for decades.”
Puerto Rico residents cannot receive benefits under the U.S. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Instead, Puerto Rico is provided a capped amount of funding, referred to as the Nutrition Assistance Program or NAP, which provides much less support than SNAP.
During his recent visit to Puerto Rico, Leader Jeffries, along Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner, Pablo José Hernández Rivera, visited the Econo Altamira Supermarket in Guaynabo. Both leaders engaged in a conversation with several customers and Econo President Eduardo Marxuach about the challenges the island faces regarding food security according to a press release issues by the Resident Commissioner’s office.
Leader Jeffries, whose congressional district includes a section of Brooklyn, New York, represents roughly 38,000 Puerto Ricans, about 5% of his total constituent population. The congressman’s district is just over 17% Hispanic, of which almost 30% is Puerto Rican.
