Republican and Democratic leaders have either downplayed or overstated the estimated impact of the House reconciliation bill on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that due to work requirements in the bill, 3.2 million people would lose all of their SNAP benefits, which provide financial help to low-income people for groceries.
The rhetoric has been heated on both sides of the aisle as House Republicans pursue a bill that would expand the work requirements necessary to be eligible for food assistance. We sort through some of the rhetoric and present the facts.
Q: Did “two million people leave the food stamp rolls in Trump’s first year”?
A: No. That’s the decline in average monthly enrollment in fiscal year 2017, including almost four months when Trump wasn’t president.
In a new TV ad, Rep. Tom Cotton tries to rewrite history with the claim that President Obama “hijacked the farm bill, turned it into a food stamp bill.” Food stamp funding has been part of farm bills going back to 1973.