Texas Gov. Greg Abbott vetoes summer lunch program for low-income kids

The Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer, or Summer EBT Program, would have given qualifying low-income families $120 per child to pay for lunches in the summer months, a time when poor families often struggle to feed their children in the absence of affordable school lunches.

The $60 million measure was the only budget item the Republican governor vetoed. Texas’ investment would have covered administrative costs and enabled the state to access up to $400 million in federal funding.

“In a stunning display of misplaced priorities, Gov. Abbott used his line-item veto power to eliminate just one Legislature-approved item from Texas’ $338 billion state budget: a $60 million program to feed hungry Texas children during summer months,” the Texas House Democratic Caucus said in an emailed statement.
The governor cited the uncertain future of federal social safety net programs as his reason for the veto.

“… There is significant uncertainty regarding federal matching rates for this and other similar programs,” Abbott explained, according to the Texas Tribune. “Once there is more clarity about the long-term fiscal ramifications for creating such a program, the Legislature can reconsider funding this item.”
However, built into the state budget item was a stipulation that if the funding formula should change, the appropriation would be cancelled anyway.

Meanwhile, at the federal level, President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” is likely to include cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), often referred to as “food stamps.” However, there’s no word whether the Summer EBT program is threatened at the federal level.

More than 3.75 million Texas children would have qualified for the program. In an Instagram post, the Texas Democratic Party criticized Abbott for the move, calling it “shameful.”

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This article appears in Jun 12-25, 2025.