WASHINGTON – In 2021, President Joe Biden enacted the largest-ever permanent increase in federal food benefits, giving average Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program beneficiaries an additional $36 per person per month.
The 21% increase in benefits is one of the main domestic policy changes of Biden’s first term. But it came at a time when many safety net policies were in flux due to the coronavirus pandemic, and it didn’t get much attention.
Republicans have noticed, however, and are now hoping to change the law to prevent a future Democratic president from taking a similar step.
“President Biden overturned four decades of history and single-handedly enacted a $256 billion increase in SNAP spending over a ten-year period,” House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.) wrote in a April article outlining your counterattack plan.
Thompson wants to make it so that monthly SNAP benefits can only be adjusted for inflation, regardless of dietary guidelines or food consumption patterns, which were the reasons the Biden administration used to justify the 2021 increase. of a broader “farm bill” that would make other adjustments to nutrition and agriculture policies.
Democrats have strongly opposed Thompson’s proposal and it is unclear whether it can become law, given Democratic control of the Senate and the White House.
“President Biden came into office determined to rebuild our economy from the middle up and the bottom up so that no one is left behind.” White House spokesman Jeremy Edwards said in a statement to HuffPost. “That’s why he has taken historic steps to reduce hunger and give families more breathing room, including the largest-ever permanent increase in SNAP benefits, which is helping families put healthy food on the table.”
More than 21 million families receive SNAP benefits, distributed on debit cards for use only when purchasing food at supermarkets. It’s one of the federal government’s largest and most responsive economic programs, and it’s a perennial topic of political debate, with Republicans pushing for stricter eligibility rules and complaining that a monthly food subsidy makes people poor people are not willing to accept low-wage jobs.
During a debate over federal spending last year, Republicans pushed for stricter “work requirements” for certain SNAP recipients over age 49, and the White House only agreed after insisting on an exception for veterans and the homeless. . The resulting commitment, drawn up in part through direct negotiation between Thompson and Bidenwill probably lead to a net increase in benefit paymentsaccording to analysis from the Congressional Budget Office.
The Biden administration’s increase in monthly benefits in 2021, however, was more significant, but it came as several pandemic-related changes expired, which may have made it difficult for SNAP recipients to understand since the increase compensated for the loss of a pandemic surge but not otherand the benefits ended up decreasing compared to the 2022 maximum.
The average monthly benefit per person increased from $155 in 2019 to $230 in 2022, before settling at $188 this year, according to data from the US Department of Agriculture.
Biden’s increase resulted from an update to the “Economical Eating Plan,” the government’s mathematical model of a healthy diet for a low-income family, focusing on more nutritious foods, including more fish, more “red and orange” vegetables like peppers and carrots.
Since SNAP allocations increase per person, the change was more substantial for households with children, whose benefits went from about $420 to $542 on average.
“The 2021 reassessment resulted in such a significant increase in benefits because it was catching up nearly 50 years ago without adjusting benefits to reflect reality,” said Katie Bergh, senior policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, in an interview. . “It may not have seemed like much, because this is a permanent increase, it is having a very significant ongoing impact on families.”
The Budget Center estimated that the 2021 change lifted 2.4 million Americans above the government’s income-based poverty threshold.
Thompson said his proposal would reduce SNAP spending by about $30 billion from more than $1 trillion over 10 years.
Democrats criticized Thompson’s farm bill because of the change in nutrition policy.
“This farm bill represents the largest financial cut to SNAP in 30 years, and they are doing it at a time of greatest need for this SNAP program to serve our American people,” said Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) during a press conference. committee meeting where Republicans approved Thompson’s plan last month.
Thompson and other Republicans responded that benefits would continue to increase to keep up with inflation and that their bill would not eliminate the increase that Biden had already added. Republicans said Biden overstepped his authority.
Thompson said at the hearing: “If the benefit is to be increased beyond inflation, Congress must consider and execute.”
