After surging to a record $149 billion last year as part of the federal response to the pandemic, SNAP will cost $121 billion a year in the near term, said the Congressional Budget Office on Wednesday. The CBO also forecast that crop subsidies would cost an average of $6.2 billion a year, land stewardship $5.7 billion, and crop insurance $9.7 billion over the next five years.
The four categories are major areas of spending for farm bill programs. Congress is due to write a farm bill, which typically has a five-year lifespan, this year.
“We are looking at the most expensive farm bill ever,” said Arkansas Sen. John Boozman, the senior Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee. SNAP costs would be sharply higher because the USDA recalculated the expense of a healthy diet, resulting in higher benefit levels. “This is unsustainable and must be thoroughly debated as Congress considers the next farm bill,” said Boozman.
The CBO estimated that SNAP would cost $605 billion over the next five years, up from a 2022 estimate that food stamps would cost $531 billion over the same five years, from 2024 to 2028.