The largest U.S. anti-hunger program would be cut by 20 percent in the coming decade under the budget resolution now awaiting a vote on the House floor. Combined, the cuts total more than $150 billion, says the think-tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “A cut of this magnitude would necessitate ending food assistance for millions of low-income families, cutting benefits for millions or these households, or some combination of the two,” said CBPP analysts Dottie Rosenbaum and Brynne Keith-Jennings. The Republican-controlled Budget Committee proposed similar cuts in each of the past five years.
In the near term, the budget proposal would terminate benefits for about 3 million people, or 7 percent of recipients, says a CBPP analysis, to reduce spending by $25 billion. The committee would convert food stamps into a block grant in 2021 and cut funding by $125 billion from 2011-26, the final six years of the time frame used in budget estimates. “States would be left to decide whose benefits to reduce or terminate. They would have no good choices,” says the think tank, because benefits average $1.41 per person per meal.
“Too many people are becoming trapped in the program with no way to get out,” said the Budget Committee when it unveiled its proposal. “At the same time, states simply do not have the flexibility or authority to improve the program and address this cycle of dependency.” The CBPP analysts say the cost of the program is on its way down after peaking at $80 bilion in fiscal 2013 as a result of slow recovery from the 2008-09 recession. CBO forecasts annual outlays of $72-$74.5 billion in the coming decade.
The proposed cuts “would mean more hunger and deeper poverty for very vulnerable people,” said Jim Weill of the anti-hunger Food Research and Action Center.
With the funding allowed under the proposed block grant, states would have to cut enrollment by an average 10 million people during 2012-26 if they didn’t want to curtail the average benefit for recipients. That would be a 29 percent reduction in participation, based on CBO’s estimates of enrollment. Or states could say that no one earning more than around 68 percent of the poverty line could receive benefits, said CBPP, compared to the current limit of 130 percent. Another option would be to reduce the monthly benefit by one-fourth.
The budget resolution calls on the House Agriculture Committee and four other committees to recommend cuts totaling $140 billion in federal programs without specifying where to find the money.
The so-called farm bill coalition of farm, conservation and antihunger groups circulated a letter against cuts in USDA programs. The American Soybean Association, part of that group, also issued a statement against cuts in food stamps as part of the House budget resolution. “As producers of the nation’s food, we can’t support a proposal that would weaken the ability of Americans in the most need to buy that food,” said ASA president Richard Wilkins.
At latest count, 45.2 million Americans received food stamps, roughly one of every seven people in the nation.
Meanwhile, the Budget Committee filed its budget resolution, H Con Res 125, and the accompanying report, H Report 114-70, a step toward floor debate. Action was unlikely before mid April.