Food stamps, the largest U.S. antihunger program, “lacks a clear mission,” said chairwoman Jackie Walorski of the House Agriculture subcommittee on nutrition. In opening a hearing on characteristics of food-stamp recipients, the Indiana Republican said the program, which helps poor people buy food, “is not helping lift people out of poverty.” She also complained of “many levels of bureaucracy” and overlapping federal, state and local programs.
Agriculture Committee chairman Michael Conaway said the review of food stamps, the largest USDA program, “is the big deal.” Conaway said the nutrition program has evolved into an income support and said consideration was needed about how the program could help prevent childhood obesity.
Massachusetts Democrat Jim McGovern said 92 percent of food-stamp benefits go to people with incomes below the poverty line. “The bottom line is SNAP works,” he said, using the acronym for the official name of the program, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. One area needing attention, he said, is “the so-called cliff” – the abrupt loss of benefits that people face when their income rises above the eligibility threshold.
University of Kentucky professor James Ziliak said SNAP is “one of the most effective antipoverty programs overall,” is well-integrated with other social-welfare programs and does not appear to contribute to obesity. “Although the majority of recipients are children, elderly, or the disabled,” he said, “the program in recent years has increasingly evolved into a work support for households with a full-year worker with some college education.”
Some 45 percent of food-stamp households include children, 20 percent of recipients are disabled and 17 percent are elderly, said Karen Cunnyngham of Mathematica Policy Research. She said 43 percent of recipient households had gross income that was 50 percent or less of the poverty level; they got 57 percent of food-stamp benefits.
Elderly and disabled recipients tended to be on food stamps for longer periods of time and “are a different population” than the typically “dynamic” turnover of benefit rolls, said Gregory Mills of the Urban Institute. In recent years, a quarter of people accepted into the program left within four months and half were gone within a year.
Enrollment in food stamps climbed by 20 million people and the cost of the program more than doubled following the 2008/09 recession, hitting a record of $80 billion in fiscal 2013, says USDA. Enrollment reached a high of 47.8 million people in December 2012. Enrollment and costs are trending downward now, however. Conservative Republicans have argued for tougher work requirements and eligibility rules.
To see Walorski’s opening statement, written testimony by witnesses or a video of the hearing, click here.