GOP Rep. Mark Harris: I Voted Against Soda Restrictions for SNAP Because We Should Go Broader, I’m Worried About Nanny State

On Wednesday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “Finnerty,” Rep. Mark Harris (R-NC) defended voting against an amendment going after sugary drinks being bought with SNAP benefits by saying that “if we’re going to go after unhealthy foods, it needed to be a broader approach, cutting into those snack foods” and “we don’t want to be the nanny state that’s picking and choosing those things.”

Harris said, “[T]hat was just a simple amendment that was targeting sugary drinks. Obviously, I agree that, if we’re going to go after unhealthy foods, it needed to be a broader approach, cutting into those snack foods that you talked about, those unhealthy foods that Secretary Kennedy, in fact, had raised. This was a particular thing that I think, from my perspective, we just needed to be broader if we were going to do it, and, otherwise, we needed to make sure that we understood what we were doing. I also have a concern about being the nanny state along the way. When I think about SNAP, quite frankly, I’m more concerned about the broader picture, and that is all of the waste, fraud, and abuse that we’re seeing from people that are working with SNAP.”

He added, “I looked at that vote as something that was just sugary drinks. We needed to be able — if we were going to go after these unhealthy foods, we needed a broader approach to that.” And “I think that when we looked at the bigger issue, it was something that we felt like, on this particular, just the simply sugary drinks, was sort of targeting one particular area. And, again, we don’t want to be the nanny state that’s picking and choosing those things. I do think there’s broader room for broader reforms to SNAP.”

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