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March 26, 2025

How Large Would SNAP Be? Simulating the Size of SNAP Based on Changes to the Unemployment Rate

Abstract The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a means-tested transfer program that is available to all households that meet the eligibility criteria. Therefore, SNAP is also a countercyclical program, meaning that the size of the program increases during recessionary periods and decreases during expansionary periods. A large literature quantifies the magnitude of the relationship…

March 11, 2025

An Evaluation of Cost Saving Reforms of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

AbstractCongress is considering ways to reduce spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by $230 billion over ten years. Reforms are likely to include one or more of the following cost-saving elements: reducing the maximum SNAP benefit, reducing deductions, expanding work requirements, and ending broad based categorical eligibility. In this paper I analyze each…

February 24, 2025

What Do You Call an Automatic Stabilizer that Doesn’t Shrink When Conditions Improve? The Biden Food Stamps Blowout

Last month the Wall Street Journal editorial board (“The Great Biden Welfare Blowout”) reviewed the staggering number of welfare recipients in key programs at the close of the Biden administration:  Some 84.6 million individuals are enrolled in Medicaid—about a quarter of the population—roughly the same as when Mr. Biden entered office. About 42.6 million Americans…

December 5, 2024

SNAP and the “Make America Healthy Again” Agenda

President Trump has committed to “Make America Healthy Again.” Part of the solution will involve addressing issues within the federal government’s nutrition assistance programs. His nominees to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) will play a pivotal role in advancing this agenda. Nearly six in 10 Americans…

May 22, 2024

Missed Opportunities in the Proposed Farm Bill

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn Thompson’s proposed Farm Bill reauthorization, The Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024, heads to committee markup today. The Farm Bill is a tough reauthorization normally, and even more difficult in a tightly divided House. While there are provisions that would improve the program, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) needs…

July 12, 2023

Employment in SNAP: Setting the Record Straight

Skeptics of work requirements in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) often argue that most families receiving SNAP benefits are already working. A recent NBCNews article, for example, claimed that four out of five SNAP households have at least one working person in the household, and that 10 percent had three or more workers in 2021,…

June 23, 2023

SNAP Can Improve Nutrition, Help Farmers, and Support the Environment

A headline in the Wall Street Journal earlier this year read, “America Is Binging on Snacks, and Food Companies Are Eating It Up.” The article explains how American diets that were already heavily reliant on snacks and packaged foods, have only gotten more so since the pandemic – to the tune of $181 billion in household snack purchases…

June 16, 2023

The Missing Context Behind “Cuts” in Fast-Growing Welfare Programs

Official Washington just completed a heated debate on the debt limit, punctuated by intense partisan differences over strengthening work requirements for key welfare programs. On one side stood House Republicans, who on April 26 approved legislation that would have strengthened work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents (dubbed “ABAWDs”) collecting major welfare benefits like food stamps and…

June 15, 2023

The Conservative Case for SNAP Restrictions

Conservatives believe in individual freedom, free enterprise, and limited government. This is why conservatives often bridle against the government restricting individual choice—even when it comes to the use of public benefits. After all, being free to make decisions for yourself and your family is fundamental to conservative thought. So, why should policymakers consider placing restrictions on what…

June 13, 2023

Testimony: The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Toward Better Employment and Health Outcomes

Chairman Thompson, Ranking Member Scott, and members of the Agriculture Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on this important issue. My name is Angela Rachidi and I am a Senior Fellow on poverty and opportunity at the American Enterprise Institute, where I have spent the past several years researching policies aimed at reducing…