SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-–Title IV in the Senate and the House farm bills—is the elephant in the room because it takes up roughly 80% of the bill’s total cost to taxpayers. SNAP benefits cost roughly $80 billion per year for 47.5 million participants.
Yesterday, the Senate Agriculture Committee passed its version of the farm bill with no amendments to its draft of the Title IV Nutrition section. The committee proposes more than $4 billion in cuts to SNAP over the next 10 years.
Joel Berg, Executive Director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger said of the vote:
Unfortunately…[the Senate Ag Committee] passed a bill that values foreign corporate welfare over feeding our children, seniors, and low-income working people. If this version of the Farm Bill becomes law, $4.1 billion in SNAP funding would be cut, and that would mean $90 less a month for 500,000 families already struggling to make ends meet.
For out-of-work American adults and their out-of-luck children, SNAP is a lifeline, the remaining survivor of the once effective safety net.
SNAP is an entitlement, which means that anyone who qualifies is eligible to receive benefits. That’s how Congress set it up but with budget cuts the only issue of concern, the $80 billion annual cost of SNAP is a sitting duck.
That’s why these bills look so mean-spirited.
Apparently, Congress could not care less about making sure that the down-and-out have access to better and healthier food.
Instead, the emphasis is on reducing enrollments and preventing fraud. Yes, fraud is a problem in SNAP, but a relatively small one. And whether fraud is worth the time, energy, and hundreds of millions of dollars a year spent on its prevention is arguable.
But this is about politics, and it’s possible that the new anti-fraud measures may be a small price to pay for hanging onto the bulk of the benefits.
As the Senate summary puts it:
The Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2013 strengthens the integrity and accountability of federal nutrition programs. The legislation ensures that every dollar be spent responsibly so that those who need help can get it. The bill cracks down on fraud and abuse, while strengthening efforts to get food assistance to those most in need.
The proposed bill:
The House summary says: “FARRM makes common-sense reforms, closes program loopholes, and cracks down on waste,fraud, and abuse saving the American taxpayer over $20 billion.”
Yes, most of these sound reasonable, although eliminating outreach seems like a really bad idea. But do they represent the most serious problems with SNAP?
Where is congressional will to meet the needs of the poorest members of our society? This is about cost-cutting and power politics. It is not about taking care of the most vulnerable members of society, among them 23 million children.
Tomorrow, I’ll talk about the useful parts of this legislation—those focused on improving the health of SNAP participants—and why SNAP benefits are so contentious in this Congress.
In the meantime, the House Ag Committee does its version of the farm bill starting at 10:00 this morning.
I am honored (hugely) to be the recipient of the 2023 Edinburgh Medal, at which I give a speech as part of the Edinburgh Science Festival. My talk, “Food Politics: Why it Matters Now” is at 7:00 p.m. Information about the Science Festival is here. A Tweet announcing my award is here.