WASHINGTON — House Republicans plan a vote this week on a bill that would save billions of dollars by taking away food stamps from millions of poor Americans.
Or, viewed another way, Republicans are pushing legislation to restore the eligibility requirements of the food stamp program and end a dramatic expansion in the number of people dependent on government.
The cost of the federal food stamp program has exploded over the past decade. According to the Department of Agriculture. In 2001, the program served 17 million people at a cost of just over $15 billion. By 2012, there were 46 million people enrolled in the program at a cost of a little under $75 billion. Democrats say the program has grown because the economy tanked; Republicans argue much of the expansion is attributed to states giving benefits to people who do not qualify.
As part of the reauthorization of the farm bill, the House Agriculture Committee approved $20 billion in cuts to food stamps – officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – over 10 years. But the bill did not only cut the budget. It also revised the rules for how states enroll people into the program, closing what Republicans call loopholes that allowed states to grant food stamps to people who would not normally qualify. Most significantly, the bill would significantly curtail the use of “categorical eligibility,” a process by which state agencies would grant SNAP benefits to individuals who qualified for other state assistance programs.
