SNAP and the Farm Bill Pt 1

SNAP and the Farm Bill Pt 1

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. The 2023 Farm Bill will be the first in history to cost over $1 trillion.

John Newton, chief economist for the Senate Ag Committee, says a lot of the cost increase comes from more money for SNAP …

NEWTON … “The farm bill has increased in size by over 70 percent. SNAP is a big reason why the Farm Bill has grown so much in size. The Thrifty Food Plan update that was conducted in August of 2021 increased SNAP spending by $300 billion. And to put that into perspective, that's more than we spend on every other title in the Farm Bill.

That, Newton says, impacts other parts of the Farm Bill heavily …

NEWTON … “So SNAP is certainly eating into the Farm Bill. It's eating into our capacity to do other things we'd like to do in the farm bill, including in the nutrition space when you think about adding additional fruits and vegetables and their availability.”

Newton says the Congressional Budget Office recently made two big changes to their SNAP cost projections …

NEWTON … “First, in fiscal year 2023, they increased

SNAP participation by approximately a million people, increased SNAP outlays by $18 billion in a single year, so SNAP went from $127 billion in February, and then in their May estimate, they raised it to 145 billion.

Tune in tomorrow for more on the Farm Bill price tag.

Previous ReportWolf Drones Pt 2
Next ReportAnimal Disease Preparation