SNAP/Food Stamp Program’s History of Bipartisan Support Needed Now

FRAC Weekly News Digest

Issue #38, October 2, 2012

(Aspen Institute blog, October 1, 2012)

 

While the SNAP/Food Stamp Program has been attacked lately by some conservative commentators, USDA’s Economic Research Service reports that the program has acted the way it has for previous recessions, notes Dan Glickman in this blog post.

Glickman, head of the Aspen Institute’s Congressional Program and Chairman of FRAC’s board, notes that the program grew during the Bush administration "because the unequal economic growth of the aughts left millions of working families with wages below the poverty line, and because President Bush, with bipartisan support in the Congress, improved eligibility rules for documented immigrants (especially children) and for low-income working families."

As the recent recession drove millions into poverty, SNAP/Food Stamp participation again grew; in addition, President Obama’s administration and Congress made it easier for unemployed adults to receive benefits. The program is "countercyclical," notes Glickman.  "As unemployment hopefully goes down in the future, participation in the SNAP program will also go down."

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