Chairman Thompson, Ranking Member Craig, 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 in poverty and opportunity studies at the American Enterprise Institute. I have spent much of the past 20 years researching and analyzing federal safety net
programs for low-income families in the U.S. Starting in the early 2000s, I worked for the New York City Department of Social Services as the head of research and since 2015 I have
continued this work for the American Enterprise Institute.

Among other federal programs, my work has focused on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. I have studied the effectiveness of SNAP in reducing food insecurity, improving nutrition, reducing poverty, and most relevant for today’s hearing, its effects on employment.

I want to highlight three key themes related to SNAP and employment: First, SNAP serves a crucial role in helping low income families meet their food needs, but it also discourages work making upward mobility more challenging for families. Second, SNAP is intended to be countercyclical, meaning that caseloads should increase during a weak economy due to increased need and decrease during economic recoveries as people return to work. However, evidence suggests that SNAP enrollment has not followed this pattern in recent years, instead growing during weak and strong economies, including remaining at or near historically high levels even when unemployment rates are low. Third, to strengthen the connection between SNAP and employment policymakers can focus on two key areas: strengthening and expanding work requirements and addressing benefit cliffs. These policy changes combined with investments in employment and training services at the state level will ensure that SNAP participants can enjoy the financial and nonfinancial benefits of employment.

Read the full testimony here.