Washington, D.C. — Today, the Biden administration announced the largest increase in history to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Following the announcement, Arohi Pathak, director of policy for the Poverty to Prosperity Program at the Center For American Progress, released the following statement:
Many will remember that a bipartisan majority in Congress approved critical updates and improvements to the SNAP program in the 2018 Farm Bill. Today, we applaud the president and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s action to follow through on those promises—especially at this critical moment in our recovery. These changes are important investments that will move the program closer to ensuring that food assistance provides access to healthy food.
These increases to SNAP will help to alleviate hunger for tens of millions of people while also increasing families’ ability to keep healthier, fresher food on their tables. SNAP is not only a vital nutrition program but also a vital economic stimulus program, generating up to $1.80 for every dollar spent on SNAP during the last recession. For too long, SNAP’s failure to come into line with the realities of 21st-century life has kept benefit amounts woefully inadequate—which, thanks to structural and deeply systemic racism and gender discrimination, has harmed women, children, and people of color the most.
The increases announced today are an important step toward modernizing the program and ensuring a just, equitable recovery. SNAP has long been one of America’s most important and effective anti-poverty programs; the Biden administration took an important, and lifesaving, step toward strengthening it. We look forward to working with the administration in the coming months to ensure that SNAP reaches every family at risk of hunger.
For more information or to speak to an expert, contact Julia Cusick at [email protected].