Although lawmakers may try to cut SNAP benefits as part of the farm bill due in 2023, “we’re not going backwards,” said Senate Agriculture Committee chair Debbie Stabenow at a food conference on Thursday. Deadline for the bill is Sept. 30, although “oftentimes there has to be an extension. So that may happen.”
House Republicans proposed large cuts in SNAP in the 2014 and 2018 farm bills, without success. Stabenow said the Nov. 8 general election would determine the dynamics for the new farm bill. Republicans are widely expected to take control of the House, and the Senate is considered a toss-up. At present, Democrats have a 220-212 majority over Republicans in the House and the Senate is split 50-50.
“It depends on who is in the majority in the House and the Senate … whether we’re going to have fights around going forwards or backwards,” said Stabenow at the Consumer Federation of America conference. “So we’re not going to go backwards. But we’re going to need your help to make sure we don’t.”
SNAP, the premier U.S. anti-hunger program, and farm supports have been yoked together in the farm bill since the 1970s. “We need both. We need the safety net for farmers. We need the safety net for families,” said Stabenow. “And in my book, we don’t do a farm bill unless we are strengthening both.”
Public nutrition, dominated by SNAP, accounts for three-fourths of farm bill spending. Republicans in Congress have fumed at the Biden administration’s increase in monthly benefits of $36 per person in August 2022. The increase followed a review of the adequacy of the Thrifty Food Plan, authorized in the 2018 farm bill. “It’s incredibly important that we keep that going,” said Stabenow.
The chair flatly rejected a suggestion by an audience member to ban the purchase of sugary beverages with SNAP benefits as a pilot project against obesity. “I don’t think low-income people should be told they can’t do something that everybody else can do.” More than four of every 10 Americans is obese, says CDC data.
During a hearing last spring, some Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee floated the idea of restricting the kinds of food SNAP recipients are allowed to buy, with a mention of “soda pop and potato chips.”
Analysts say it’s not clear if such restrictions would improve Americans’ health. “The actual consequences are likely to be much more complicated,” wrote Purdue economist Jayson Lusk in 2017. SNAP recipients could buy soda with their own money if soda was banned. And restrictions could suppress participation in SNAP, he said.