ROMINA BOCCIA AND TYLER TURMAN
The ongoing government shutdown is threatening to stall funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides food aid to more than 40 million Americans. According to Politico, at least 25 states have issued notices to beneficiaries that their benefits will cease on November 1.
The fact that a program providing food assistance to millions of Americans can be brought to the edge of a cliff because of partisan gridlock illustrates the perils of allowing the welfare apparatus to become increasingly centralized in Washington. Devolving welfare programs such as SNAP to the states would align spending authority with accountability and insulate food aid from federal dysfunction.
SNAP’s Federal Funding Bottleneck
At its core, SNAP’s problems stem from its flawed financing structure. While technically administered by the states, the federal government has always borne the lion’s share of the program’s costs.
The federal government and the states currently have a 50–50 split in paying for SNAP’s administrative costs. Federal taxpayers, however, still pay 100 percent of the program’s benefits costs, meaning that whether food stamp enrollees across the country receive their benefits depends entirely on congressional appropriations. This particular spending formula has not been amended a single time since the Food Stamp Act of 1964.