Staff Writer 

The federal government cares more about saving citizens’ money than it does their dental health, Mount Vernon Democratic State Rep. Patricia Jones said.

“I’m a public health person,” she said.

Earlier this month, Jones joined other members of the state’s Health and Human Services Committee to oppose a bill prohibiting Maine residents from using food stamps to purchase soft drinks, although she said her preference would have been to move the bill forward with a positive recommendation.

“I worked in Head Start and saw a number of 4-year-olds who had to have teeth extracted just because their parents would let them drink Mountain Dew all the time,” she said. 

Jones said she believed most of the families with children in Head Start were receiving food stamps. 

“Dental treatment like that is very expensive – like $7,000 a whack. That’s a lot,” she said.

Ultimately, the bill will most likely be “shot down” when it is presented to the House later this month due to a conflict with federal law, said Scarborough Democratic State Rep. Peggy Pendleton, who sponsored the bill. According to an April 2 statement from the Office of Integrated Access and Support Department of Health and Human Services, state legislation cannot restrict the use of benefits distributed through the federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – or SNAP – which includes food vouchers. 

“The federal government shot us down big time,” Pendleton said. “The committee had no choice but to vote against it.”

Pendleton said she still believes SNAP has strayed from its original goal of providing vouchers for healthy food – similar to the WIC supplemental food program for women, infants and children – before “all of these other things just got added on,” she said. She said she was considering tackling the issue through education, hopefully encouraging people to not use the vouchers for soft drinks or other food that could result in expensive medical bills. Jones said she is skeptical of the effectiveness of adding an educational requirement for people receiving the vouchers.

“Education doesn’t have as much impact as – for instance – raising taxes,” she said. “We raised the taxes on cigarettes and there will be a lot more quitting smoking. I voted to tax beer and soda too. Environmental and policy change really help people change their behavior.”

Effective or not, education programs are something the Maine Beverage Association – which includes the five major soda distributors in the state – would be willing to support, Director Newall Augur said. 

“It takes diet and physical activity changes to make a difference,” he said. “We are responsive to our customers and we know there are mom and dads out there who are uncomfortable that their child is making unsupervised decisions that affect their health. Four or five years ago our members took a unique and bold step to remove carbonated full calorie drinks from Maine schools. We did that on our own, without any prompting.”

Last month, SNAP Associate Deputy Administrator Jessica Shahin alerted officials at Boston’s Food and Nutrition Service of the Maine bill’s potential conflict with federal regulations, according to the April 2 statement. 

“Ms. Shahin was very concerned and wanted to make sure that Maine knew that a request for a waiver to restrict the use of SNAP benefits beyond what in Federal regulations and the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 would not and could not be approved,” the statement reads.

For Jonathan Shenkin, a pediatric dentist, Pendleton’s bill is about more than changing state or federal law. 

“The whole point is that a state stands up and said ‘The food stamp program needs to change,’” he said. “Success is not necessarily in granting the waiver, it’s Maine saying ‘We need a healthier population.”

Although it is unlikely the bill will come to fruition this year Augur said its existence could set a dangerous precedent. 

“To single out a group of people and one particular product isn’t going to solve, or eve dent, the obesity epidemic in this country,” he said. 

To check on the status of the bill, visit www.mainelegislature.org and search for LD 752.