Puerto Rico and the Nutrition Assistance Program 

By: Jack ewart and sean murphree

American university farm bill practicum, may 2023

Background 

On March 2, 1917, with the passage of the Jones-Shafroth Act, Puerto Rico officially became a territory of the United States. Along with granting US citizenship to people born on the island, it established the current governmental relationship between the US and Puerto Rico, which has had ramifications that impact everything from hurricane relief to food imports and exports (Puerto Rico). The Jones Act requires that goods shipped from one American port to another be transported on an American-owned and operated shipping vessel (Davis, 2017); this forces all goods shipped to Puerto Rico to come from expensive, protected, US ships rather than being allowed to participate in the global market, increasing prices on all goods and inflating the overall cost of living. According to Luis Ponce, co-founder of Boricuas Unidos en La Diaspora, the Jones Act costs Puerto Rico about $1.5 billion annually, or about $1,050 per family (How the Jones Act, 2022). 

The Jones Act, natural disaster, and the lack of support through the Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP) have led to massive food insecurity across Puerto Rico. All US states take part in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides needs-based funding to states, who then provide that money to needy families. Although SNAP is not perfect, it is a vital resource for poorer US citizens to access food. Puerto Rico participated in the SNAP program from 1974-1982 until the NAP was introduced (Examination, 2015). Unlike SNAP, which can respond based on need, NAP is a block grant program with fixed funding, which lead to restraints on the level of funding per person and eligibility requirements. An increase in participation means a decrease in benefit levels, meaning the NAP is inflexible in a crisis. More recently, Hurricanes Irma, Maria and Fiona have had a devastating impact on Puerto Ricans’ food security. Temporary NAP extensions were enacted after Hurricane Maria to increase access to food assistance, but ended only a year later. Puerto Rico deals with a multitude of socioeconomic issues, with high debt, 40% of its population in poverty, mass emigration, high energy costs and increasing vulnerability to extreme weather events (PBS Newshour, 2017). Combined, these conditions create immense food insecurity, and the situation in Puerto Rico is unsustainable. 

Current Situation 

The NAP’s current crisis can be traced back to the mid-2000s, when two compounding factors - an economic dropoff and a sharp increase in out-migration - led to an increase in NAP participation both numerically and proportionally. Between 2005 and 2023, the number of households participating in NAP about doubled (from 400,000 to 800,000), and the percentage more than doubled (from around 20% to over 40%). This, coupled with repeated natural crises, such as hurricanes Irma, Maria and the COVID-19 pandemic, have led to both chronic and acute food insecurity on the island. The inflexibility of the NAP program has led to a crunch of payments made out to families in need because the block grant cannot scale to adapt to shocks or grow to provide coverage to all qualifying Puerto Ricans6. 

As of 10 March 2023, 811,967 households representing 1,433,490 people are on the Puerto Rico NAP program (equivalent to about 44% of the entire colony’s population in 2023)7. Generally, Puerto Rico as of the past few years has had incredibly high rates of NAP participation, with upwards of 47% of the island’s inhabitants participating in 20228. ADSEF minister Alberto Fradera Vázquez said that another 200,000 families could be on SNAP if the program were given the same funding structure (instead of its current block grant), and those benefits could be as much as doubled. This means that upwards of 1,000,000 families (representing around 55% of the island’s population) could be on SNAP, if it were implemented9. 

What Has Been Done? 

Over the last several years the issue of food insecurity in Puerto Rico has continuously come back into focus. Most of this momentum came unfortunately due to the increased need for solutions after Hurricanes Maria and Irma but the momentum needs to continue to ensure the conversation is included in policy such as the 2023 Farm Bill. 

HR 5220, the Puerto Rico Nutrition Assistance Fairness Act of 2021 was introduced by representative Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon to “transition the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico from receipt of block grant payments under subsection (a)(2)(NAP) to participation as a State in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program” (Gonzalez-Colon, 2017).  The bill had 5 co-sponsors and never went to a vote. However, during the 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health HR 5220, as well as several other bills, were included in a letter written to President Biden to encourage the change to be considered under the 2023 Farm Bill (White House Conference, 2022). Representative Gonzalez-Colon summed up the importance of this potential change by saying: “Puerto Rico needs to offer nutritional assistance that is adaptable to the needs of the island. SNAP relies on funds that cover changes in demand and offers more monthly benefits than NAP. This impacts the health of residents, as well as the local economy. This legislation is a step in the right direction" (Gonzalez-Colon, 2021). This idea is popular within Puerto Rico among politicians across the board. Early last year and again in 2023 Puerto Rican Governor Pedro Pierluisis submitted letters to both the Senate and Congress urging the 2023 Farm Bill to begin the transition from NAP to SNAP. He urged the need for change because, “NAP lacks the flexibility provided in SNAP to meet the nutritional needs of its most vulnerable populations, which tend to be the most affected during crises.” (Pierluisi, 2022). Leader of the opposition party in congress, Speaker of the Puerto Rico House Rafael “Tatito” Hernandez, supports transitioning Puerto Rico to SNAP as well, having supported Senator Gillibrand’s SB-4967 to move the territory onto the program. Politicians recognize the need for ending the current NAP system and transitioning Puerto Rico into the SNAP program to begin to try and tackle food insecurity under the current political situation. 

How Racial Justice Helps 

Centering racial equity would involve not viewing territories as places for dumping our excess. Puerto Rico is an island with a rich history, beautiful landscape and unique capacity that has, unfortunately, been laden with the burden of being a territory. The possibility of statehood (with the consent of the Puerto Rican population) is always on the table, and the reason why some push it so adamantly is because of how its status limits it from participating in basic aspects of governance that most Americans take for granted. There are two bills that are aiming to improve equity and food access in Puerto Rico, Senate Bill 949 and House Bill 253, as they are the most recent attempts by congress to transition Puerto Rico away from the block grant and towards SNAP infrastructure. 

Little in the way of polling or research has been done on Puerto Rican support for re-implementing SNAP, so what the people on the island want is difficult to say. SNAP is usually brought up in the context of statehood and further integration with the United States, often among other programs like Medicare, which all work differently on the island due to its territoriality. The situation cannot hold, and thus awareness must be raised – both among the political class and Americans more broadly – to bring Puerto Rico back into SNAP. All Americans should be treated equal, and Puerto Rico is no exception. 

References 

1“Puerto Rico | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives.” History.house.gov, history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/HAIC/Historical-Essays/Foreign-Domestic/Puerto-Rico/. 

2Davis, Jennifer. “100 Years of Puerto Rico: Puerto Rico Becomes a U.S. Territory | in Custodia Legis: Law Librarians of Congress.” Blogs.loc.gov, 2 Mar. 2017. 

3“How the Jones Act Affects Puerto Rico; “the Uncanny Parallels” with Hawaii.” Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, 31 Aug. 2022, 

4“Examination of Cash Nutrition Assistance Program Benefits in Puerto Rico.” USDA, US Department of Agriculture, Aug. 2015. 

5PBS NewsHour. “The Jones Act, Explained (and What Waiving It Means for Puerto Rico).” PBS NewsHour, 29 Sept. 2017, www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/jones-act-explained-waiving-means-puerto-rico. 

6Cordero-Guzman, Hector R. “Characteristics of Participants in Puerto Rico’s Nutritional Assistance Program (PAN/NAP) and Their Connections to the Labor Market.” Budget and Policy Priorities, 26 October 2021. https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/characteristics-of-participants-in-puerto-ricos-nutritional-assistance 

7United States Department of Agriculture. https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/resource-files/PR%24Ben%23Part-3.pdf 

8Administration for the Socio-Economic Development of the Family. “Puerto Rico NAP State Plan of Operations FY 2023.” https://servicios.adsef.pr.gov/docs/pdf/PUERTO%20RICO%20SPO.pdf 

9Méndez, Osman Pérez. “Estos serían los cambios que traería a Puerto Rico la transición de PAN a SNAP.” Primera Hora, 5 February 2023. https://www.primerahora.com/noticias/gobierno-politica/notas/estos-serian-los-cambios-que-traeria-a-puerto-rico-la-transicion-de-pan-a-snap/ 

10“Jenniffer González-Colón Introduces Legislation to Include Puerto Rico in the Supplemental Food Assistance Program.” Congresswoman Jenniffer González-Colón, 13 Sept. 2021. 

11“White House Conference Policy Proposal.” FRAC, Food Research and Action Center, 15 July 2022. 

12“Jenniffer González-Colón Introduces Legislation to Include Puerto Rico in the Supplemental Food Assistance Program.” Congresswoman Jenniffer González-Colón, 13 Sept. 2021. 

13Pierluisi, Pedro. Farm Bill Priority Letter. Governor of Puerto Rico, Jan. 2022, www.puertoricoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/pierluisi-letter.pdf.