enacted the largest-ever permanent increase to federal food benefits, giving the average Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients an extra $36 per person each month.
Thompson wants to make it so SNAP’s monthly benefits can only be adjusted for inflation, without regard to dietary guidance or patterns of food consumption, which were the reasons the Biden administration used to justify the 2021 increase. Thompson’s proposal is part of a broader “farm bill” that would make other tweaks to both nutrition and agriculture policies.
The Biden administration’s 2021 increase to monthly benefits, meanwhile, was more significant but happened as several pandemic-related changes expired, which may have made it hard for SNAP recipients to notice since the increase “The 2021 reevaluation resulted in such a significant increase to benefits because it was catching up for almost 50 years of not adjusting benefits to reflect reality,” Katie Bergh, a senior policy analyst with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said in an interview. “It may not have felt like a lot, because this is a permanent increase, it is having a very significant ongoing impact for families.
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