Food stamp use is falling, and the GOP wants to cut it even more
Amid mounting efforts by congressional Republicans and many states to reduce the growth in the federal food stamp program, spending on the program dropped by three percent during the first half of fiscal 2016 compared to a year ago, according to new Treasury Department data.
While a three-percent drop in a multi-billion-dollar federal program may not sound like a lot, the net result is that 3.1 million fewer Americans received food subsidies under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in January 2016 than in January 2013, according to Department of Agriculture data.
During the Great Recession, SNAP was expanded to include able-bodied people adults who had no children, temporarily overturning a provision in the 1990’s that required single people to find a job within three months of receiving the benefit and work an average of 20 hours a week in order to continue to qualify.
As the program grew to 1 in 7 Americans on food stamps—including college students—or more than 46 million Americans, the program had become fiscally unsustainable. As the economy and jobs bounced back, SNAP costs began to fall as more people landed jobs.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which has long championed food stamps as an essential element of the social safety net in recessionary times, said that SNAP spending between October 2015 and March 2016 was at the lowest point for the first half of a fiscal year since 2009 when adjusted for inflation.
Dottie Rosenbaum, a food stamp expert for the center wrote on Wednesday that food stamp caseloads were falling and there was no justification for House Republicans to seek massive new cuts in SNAP for the coming fiscal year.
Late last month, the House Budget Committee adopted a budget plan that would slash food stamp spending by more than $150 billion – or more than 20 percent – over the coming decade and change the program into block grants. Rosenbaum said that a cut of that magnitude would force millions of low-income families out of the program and reduce the monthly benefits for those who remain on the rolls. The committee has sought similar cuts in each of the last five years.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/food-stamp-use-is-falling-and-the-gop-wants-to-cut-it-even-more/ar-BBrKrtB?li=BBnbfcN
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