With a decline in the unemployment rate, “economic improvement has started to yield decreases in participation [in food stamps] from the levels that we saw as a result of the recession,” said Agriculture Undersecretary Kevin Concannon. In testimony prepared for the House Agriculture Committee, he said enrollment is down from last year’s levels, “and the downward trend in participation is expected to continue …. While the recovery has not reached every American, there are encouraging signs.”
Since last September, when the jobless rate fell below 6 percent, enrollment in food stamps has dropped by 950,000 people, or 2 percent, to 45.5 million people at latest count. The record was 47.8 million people in December 2012. Enrollment soared by more than 20 percent following the 2008-09 recession, at a cost of $80 billion in fiscal 2013. Conservative Republicans, who said costs were out of control, suggested stricter eligibility rules. Defenders of the program said the problem was the slow economic recovery.