LOWERING THE COST OF FOOD AND IMPROVING NUTRITION FOR ALL AMERICANS

San Francisco and the Bay Area are known worldwide for incredible food, but too many of our neighbors can't afford to eat.
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Roughly 1 in 8 Californians experienced food insecurity last year, and demand at Bay Area food banks has reached historic levels. Even families who aren't going hungry have felt grocery prices climb sharply over the past few years, squeezing household budgets across the city and country.

Scott has spent his time in Sacramento authoring law after law to strengthen the food safety net. Examples of Scott’s legislative work include: SB 900, creating a rebate program for CalFresh recipients who buy fresh California produce, thus making fresh fruits and vegetables more affordable for low income people; SB 278 and SB 282, protecting CalFresh recipients from being penalized for government errors and expanding access to prepared meals for homeless, elderly, and disabled residents; and SB 285, streamlining CalFresh enrollment by shortening the application form and requiring the ability to sign up for CalFresh by phone.

Scott kept fighting on enrollment access even after setbacks: after his 2020 bill to simplify the CalFresh application for seniors and people with disabilities stalled in committee, he came back the following year and got the same reforms incorporated directly into the state budget. As Chair of the Senate Budget Committee, he's also backed billions of dollars for California's universal school meals program and support for food banks, and as a member of the Senate Health and Judiciary Committees, he's supported protecting shoppers from surveillance pricing and making medically supportive food a Medicaid benefit.

Congressional Republicans have spent the past year cutting people off SNAP benefits and shrinking what's left for those still enrolled, stripping climate and conservation guardrails out of Farm Bill funding meant to help family farmers adapt, even as grocery consolidation lets a handful of chains distort prices and squeeze independent stores. Scott believes Congress should be strengthening the food safety net, not gutting it, and restoring real competition to a grocery industry that increasingly serves shareholders over shoppers.

In Congress, Scott will work to:

• Reverse the cuts to SNAP/CalFresh, restoring benefits to the 22 million Americans affected and updating the Thrifty Food Plan to reflect the actual cost of nutritious food today
• Make healthy food incentive programs permanent, building on SB 900, Scott’s California law giving CalFresh families rebates for buying fresh produce, thus making it much more affordable to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables
• Simplify enrollment in federal nutrition programs nationwide, building on his CalFresh enrollment and application reforms in California, so eligible families aren't kept out of the program by red tape
• Push for federal funding of universal free school meals nationwide, extending the model California pioneered so no child goes hungry at school regardless of what state they live in
• Support full, shutdown-proof funding for WIC, so pregnant women, new parents, and young children never lose access to nutrition assistance because of a budget standoff
• Advocate for making food-as-medicine a mandatory benefit across Medicaid, Medicare, the VA, and Indian Health Services, building on the California legislation he supported making it a Medicaid benefit
• Push to ban surveillance pricing at grocery stores, building on his support for California's AB 446, so shoppers pay the same price as their neighbors instead of an algorithm-set price based on their personal data
• Direct stronger antitrust enforcement at food industry consolidation, pushing the FTC and DOJ to enforce laws like the Robinson-Patman Act against price collusion and market-distorting grocery mergers
• Protect and strengthen climate-smart agriculture and conservation funding in the Farm Bill, defending USDA programs like EQIP and the Conservation Stewardship Program from Republican cuts, so family farmers — including the small and mid-size California growers whose produce fuels programs like SB 900 — can afford to farm sustainably despite drought, water scarcity, and rising land costs

Scott’s Legislative Track Record

• SB 900 (2018): Created the CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable EBT Pilot Project, giving CalFresh recipients rebates for purchasing California-grown fresh produce
• SB 278 (2017): Protected CalFresh recipients from being penalized for state and county administrative errors and improved the program's cost-effectiveness
• SB 282 (2017): Expanded the CalFresh Restaurant Meal Program, allowing homeless, elderly, and disabled recipients to use benefits for prepared meals
• SB 285 (2019): Streamlined CalFresh enrollment and set statewide enrollment goals to close California's gap in reaching eligible residents
• SB 107 (2021): Expanded CalFresh access for seniors and people with disabilities; incorporated into the state budget