2017 HOUSE BUDGET WOULD SLASH SNAP

The House Budget Committee-approved budget plan would cut SNAP) by more than $150 billion—over 20%—over the next 10 years. The plan:

•      Eliminates waivers for childless adults living in areas of high unemployment.

•      Eliminates states’ option to use broad-based categorical eligibility, which helps households with gross incomes or assets are modestly above the federal SNAP limits but whose disposable income is below the poverty line, often because of high rent or child care costs. Several hundred thousand children in these families whose eligibility for free school meals is tied to their family’s receipt of SNAP would lose free school meals.

•      Restricts states’ ability to reduce paperwork in determining SNAP benefit levels for households receiving LIHEAP benefits.  CBO has estimated this change would cut SNAP by about $10 billion over ten years

•      Would convert SNAP into a block grant beginning in 2021 and cut funding steeply — by $125 billion (or almost 30%) between 2021 to 2026.  States would be left to decide whose benefits to reduce or terminate. 

Source: Center for Budget & Policy Priorities, 3/21/16, Budget Plan

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