The West Virginia House of Delegates Health Committee Chair Del. Evan Worrell, R-Cabell, held a pre-session round table on Feb. 11, 2025. (Perry Bennett | West Virginia Legislative Photography)
West Virginia is consistently in the top 10 of poorest states in the nation, and yet, instead of doing anything to help residents, lawmakers just continue to introduce bills to make things harder on them.
In 2023, about 16.7% of West Virginians lived in poverty, which is 5.6% higher than the national rate.
The median household income in the Mountain State is $57,917. Families of four who make $55,500 or less qualify for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children benefits, also known as food stamps. In 2024, 277,400 West Virginians, or about 16% of the state population, used SNAP benefits.
People are struggling to pay bills. Some can’t find child care, leaving them unable to work to make ends meet.
And what are lawmakers doing to help with these issues? They’re worrying about what’s in your kitchen cabinets.
Republicans think people who need SNAP benefits shouldn’t buy sweets. House Bill 2350 would prevent SNAP recipients from buying candy and soda. Lawmakers presented no numbers on how much SNAP money is being spent on these items. Sorry kids, the government said no birthday cake.
Some Republicans also want to ban artificial dyes in food because they believe the dyes lead to behavioral problems in children. Although the dyes don’t affect all children and foods with natural dyes are significantly more expensive, legislators don’t want to give parents a choice of whether or not their kids can eat Skittles or those blaze orange Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.
Just to be clear: Vaccines that prevent life-threatening diseases that could infect entire communities should be a parental choice but not artificial dyes.
Lawmakers didn’t stop at policing the kitchens of SNAP households. West Virginia currently has a voluntary SNAP Employment and Training program, but lawmakers want to make it mandatory for all able-bodied adults up to age 59, unless they have an exemption.
Under SNAP E&T, those who do not have an exemption between ages 18 to 54 must work at least 20 hours a week or they will be subject to a time limit on their SNAP benefits of three months within three years.
What about someone who works part-time in retail or food services, and their hours get cut below 20 hours?
Or let’s say someone maxes out their SNAP benefits because it took them four months to find a great job working for the federal government, and then a year later, a billionaire comes in and fires them. Does that person just have to starve until they find a new job?
In other states with mandatory SNAP E&T programs, “it’s both increasing food insecurity as well as not achieving the intended outcome of the SNAP E&T program, which is to connect people with tools, resources and opportunities to achieve self-sufficiency,” said Caitlin Cook, director of advocacy and public policy for Mountaineer Food Bank.
Other bills also indirectly target poor people.
Consider the Hope Scholarship. This program takes money away from public schools — which are free for everyone — to be used for tuition at religious, private and charter schools. School superintendents say the Hope Scholarship is partly to blame for the closing of 25 public schools.
Lawmakers like to say the scholarship helps all families, but the $4,400 doesn’t cover full tuition at most of these schools. And now our free public schools struggle with less funding and, when they are forced to close, kids have to travel farther for school.
And then there’s our homeless populations. What is the Legislature doing for them? Giving more money to shelters to build more beds? Create more programs to get them back into the workforce? No.They’ve introduced a bill to ban homeless people from sleeping on public property, and listed fines of up to $500 for those who violate it.
Yes, charge them money they don’t have. Or take them to jail, where they’ll be housed and fed with taxpayer money, so lawmakers can be mad about that too. It seems funding shelters would be the smarter choice in the long run.
And as if that isn’t enough harm, they keep going. While the state already has a near-total abortion ban, House Bill 2712 will remove exemptions for victims of rape an incest. This will only affect those who don’t have the money to travel out of state to get the care they need.
Same with Senate Bill 299, which would ban hormone treatment for minors with gender dysphoria at risk of suicide. Those lucky enough to live near the state line or have money to travel can still receive life-saving gender-affirming care.
The Republicans in West Virginia want to keep you poor, sick and under their control. Question their motive in every bill. Ask how that bill is actually helping most West Virginians. Where are the child care bills? Where are the bills to clean up drinking water? What about raising the minimum wage? If it doesn’t fit into the MAGA playbook, they just don’t care.
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