The debt limit deal between President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy would expand rather than cut SNAP enrollment and spending — an unexpected result given Republican insistence on broader application of work requirements, said the Congressional Budget Office on Tuesday. The increases would be modest, amounting to an additional 78,000 people and from $200-$400 million a year in a program with 42.5 million participants at latest count.
The CBO released its estimate at the same time the White House said the Biden-McCarthy agreement would not change U.S. poverty rates, although it would eliminate food stamps for some older Americans while making benefits available for veterans, homeless people and young adults who “aged out” of foster care. “We think it’s about the same number” in each group, said Shalanda Young, director of the White House budget office.
By one estimate, around 700,000 people, or 1.6 percent of SNAP recipients, would become ineligible for food stamps under the change in rules. House Republicans demanded that a 90-day limit on benefits in a three-year period to so-called ABAWDs — able-bodied adults without dependents — also apply to people ages 50-55. At present, the 90-day limit applies to ABAWDs ages 18-49.
House Agriculture chairman Glenn Thompson said in a statement the legislation would “move individuals from welfare toward work. The deal’s modest reforms to SNAP moves the program in the right direction to improve the lives of those who use it.”
In a 17-page letter to McCarthy, the CBO estimated the expansion of work requirements would be more than offset by the decision to remove the 90-day limit for veterans, homeless people and adults 18-24 who “aged out” of foster care. It said SNAP spending would rise by a total of $2.1 billion through fiscal 2033. At its peak, from 2025-2030, when all the revisions were fully phased in, SNAP enrollment would be 78,000 people, or 0.2 percent, higher, said CBO.
“CBO expects that additional increases in direct spending would occur because the provisions would be enacted simultaneously,” wrote CBO director Phillip Swagel. “The new exclusions would not only apply to some beneficiaries under age 50 who otherwise would be subject to the work requirement under current law, but also would apply to some beneficiaries ages 50 to 54 who otherwise would be subject to work requirements under the bill.”
During a White House briefing, Young said the number of people losing eligibility and gaining coverage “are going to be very close to each other, meaning a wash in those affected.” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said “this agreement…will not push people into poverty.”
Antihunger groups such as Share Our Strength said the compromise between Biden and McCarthy was a poor bargain for older ABAWDs who would lose food stamps. “Food is a basic human right and should not have a time limit,” said the Food Research and Action Center.
“As a whole, the punitive and ineffective SNAP changes included in this bill will save the United States very little money,” said Lisa Davis, senior vice president of Share Our Strength. Davis said “burdensome reporting requirements and bureaucratic red tape” could prevent ABAWDs ages 50-55 from receiving food stamps even if they worked enough hours.
“The biggest challenge facing food and farm policy makers ought to be that there are too many hungry people in the United States,” said Ken Cook, head of the Environmental Working Group, a critic of farm supports. “Speaker McCarthy has said food assistance programs like SNAP should be ‘a hand up, not a hand out.’ Shouldn’t that be true for farm subsidies?”
Young and Jean-Pierre said compromise was essential when the two major political parties shared control of the federal government. “No one gets everything they want. That’s how divided government works,” said Jean-Pierre.
To read the CBO letter, click here.
A transcript of the White House briefing is available here.