Spending on food-stamp benefits would fall 0.6 percent to $69.9 billion in the year starting 2013 as employment improves, according to projections contained in the budget President Barack Obama submitted to Congress today.
Spending for the food-stamp component of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, still would be the second-highest on record and 17 percent above 2011, the government said in its proposal for U.S. Department of Agriculture spending. Overall budget authority for all related initiatives would fall 0.9 percent to $87.4 billion.
SNAP is the cornerstone of our nations food-assistance safety net and touches the lives of more than 46 million people, acccording to the budget document.
Food stamps have become a theme in this years presidential campaign, as enrollment has increased 47 percent since December 2008, a month before President Barack Obama took office. The programs rising cost has been called unsustainable by Republicans including Newt Gingrich, who has labeled Obama the best food-stamp president in American history.
About 46.286 million Americans received aid in November, the last month for which data was available, up 0.1 percent from October, according to the USDA. Participation was 6.2 percent higher than a year earlier. The government spent $6.21 billion on the program for the month, up 6.9 percent from 2010.
The number of Americans receiving assistance under the program set records every month from December 2008 until June 2011 and has changed little since September. Joblessness (USURTOT) fell to 8.3 percent in January from 8.5 percent in December, the Labor Department said last month.
Food-stamp enrollment tends to lag unemployment gains and declines. Participation in the program should fall as the economy improves, according to Kevin Concannon, the head of the USDAs Food and Nutrition Service.