What's New
A law that allows state agencies to use federal funds to replace stolen SNAP benefits was set to expire on December 20 but will go ahead if a government shutdown is averted by the end of the day Friday.
Why It Matters
SNAP theft has been rife in recent years. In the first quarter of 2024, there were 179,000 instances of fraudulent transactions reported to the U.S. Department of Agriculture across 50 U.S. states and territories. A further 181,000 were reported in the second quarter, between April and June. Then, instances of fraud rose by more than 280,000 in the third quarter.
For the last two years, Congress has authorized states to replace stolen SNAP benefits, with some limitations, using money from the federal government. Since then, in excess of $150 million in snatched benefits have been repaid to more than 300,000 low-income SNAP households across the country.
What To Know
The law that provides federal assistance for stolen SNAP benefits was first enacted it 2022. It was due to expire in September but was extended by a stopgap funding bill known as a continuing resolution, which passed by lawmakers and signed by President Joe Biden in the same month in order to avert a government shutdown.
The House Appropriations Committee finalized another continuing resolution on Tuesday, extending the 2018 Farm Bill until the end of September 2025. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the rule allowing federal replacement of defrauded SNAP recipients will now be in place until September 30, 2028, if the resolution is approved by lawmakers.
What People Are Saying
Ty Jones Cox, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities vice president for food assistance, said in a statement: "Thanks to leadership from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, low-income families whose SNAP benefits are stolen will maintain the ability to have those benefits restored in the coming years. Without these critical protections, hundreds of thousands of low-income households across the country would be left with no way to feed their families when their benefits are stolen. SNAP participants, who have low incomes and few resources to fall back on, must not be forced to bear the cost of these crimes.
"As the U.S. faces rising food insecurity, protecting and strengthening SNAP should be a top priority as lawmakers continue to work on a full five-year farm bill reauthorization and other legislative priorities in the next Congress."
What's Next
The continuing resolution still needs to pass the House and Senate, which will be something of a scramble, especially given intervention from President-elect Donald Trump and some of his supporters on Wednesday.
Billionaire Trump ally Elon Musk led the charge against a Republican-backed funding bill, speaking out against a short-term spending compromise orchestrated by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to keep the government open until the president-elect's new term.
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