Setting the Record Straight on SNAP, Part 9: Examining the New House GOP Proposal

We’ve updated our analysis of the House Republican SNAP proposal to reflect the final language in the legislation, which Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-OK) introduced Monday and is expected to go to the House floor this week.  The bill would cut SNAP by at least $39 billion over ten years.  As our report explains:

The House SNAP bill is harsh.  The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates it would deny SNAP to approximately 3.8 million low-income people in 2014 and to an average of nearly 3 million people each year over the coming decade.  Those who would be thrown off the program include some of the nation’s most destitute adults, as well as many low-income children, seniors, and families that work for low wages.  The people the bill would cut off SNAP include but are not limited to:

• 1.7 million unemployed, childless adults in 2014 who live in areas of high unemployment — a group that has average income of only 22 percent of the poverty line (about $2,500 a year for a single individual) and for whom SNAP is, in most cases, the only government assistance they receive (this number will average 1 million a year over the coming decade);
• 2.1 million people in 2014, mostly low-income working families and low-income seniors, who have gross incomes or assets modestly above the federal SNAP limits but disposable income — the income that a family actually has available to spend on food and other needs — below the poverty line in most cases often because of high rent or child care costs.  (This number will average 1.8 million a year over the coming decade.)  In addition, 210,000 children in these families would also lose free school meals;
• Other poor, unemployed parents who want to work but cannot find a job or an opening in a training program — along with their children, other than infants.

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