The Obama administration said it “strongly supports” the federal food stamp program in a Wednesday press release supporting a Democratic-sponsored farm bill that would extend funding for the program until 2017.
“The administration also strongly supports the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a cornerstone of our nation’s food assistance safety net, which is why it was not subject to cuts in the president’s budget,” the press release read. “SNAP helps families put food on the table, while also benefiting farm and rural economies.” (RELATED: Sessions: Food stamp spending up 100 percent since Obama took office)
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported in April that the cost of the food stamp program has ballooned 135 percent from 2007 to 2011. The number of households receiving food stamps has doubled in the past decade, according to the Republican Senate Budget Committee. The CBO blamed the weak economy, temporarily higher benefits from Obama’s 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and rising food prices.
“Nearly 45 million recipients, one out of every seven U.S. residents, received SNAP benefits in an average month in fiscal year 2011,” the CBO explained.
Republicans in the House of Representatives voted to pull 2 million people off food stamps as part of cuts to social programs in order to spare the military from a 10 percent budget cut automatically scheduled for next year.
The farm bill makes minor changes to SNAP, like making lottery or gambling winners ineligible for benefits after a Michigan woman won the lottery and continued to collect the handouts. It also opens the door for retail outlets to use mobile technologies to redeem the benefits.
