As the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to reverberate across the country, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has taken steps to expand food stamp eligibility for those most at risk of hunger. As part of a “profound change” to the federal nutrition programs, the USDA has announced it is now providing $1 billion per month in additional food assistance to low-income households via new emergency allotments. In doing so, the agency settled two federal class action cases and provided new benefits for families with little to no income.
The pandemic has increased disparities in food insecurity across the country, with communities of color and children particularly hard-hit. In December 2020, food insecurity affected over 80 million Americans. In her analysis of how the pandemic is affecting mothers and children, the Brooking Institution’s Lauren Bauer found that “young children are experiencing food insecurity to an extent unprecedented in modern times.” For Black and Latino households with children, the data are particularly troubling. During the pandemic, Black families with children have reported hunger at rates three times those of white families. To Northwestern University economist Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, the persistent race gaps in household food security have been simply “appalling,” with food insecurity rates reaching “uncharted territory.”
Congress passed a March 2020 law intended to address the economic disruption caused by the pandemic. Among other things, this law, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (Families First), created new emergency allotments for food stamp benefits. Generally, benefits in the food stamp program (officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP) are need-based and driven by inputs like income and household size up to a certain maximum allotment. According to the text of Families First, the emergency allotments were intended “to address temporary food needs not greater than the applicable maximum monthly allotment for the household size.”
In April 2020, pursuant to Families First, the USDA directed that all SNAP households not receiving the maximum monthly for their household would receive an emergency allotment to get up to the maximum. This was a tremendous boon to many families, who saw an immediate increase to their food budgets.
Unfortunately, the agency interpreted the emergency allotments authorized by Family First to exclude households already receiving the maximum benefit level for their household size. What this meant was that the estimated 40 percent of SNAP households that already received the maximum benefit level—that is the lowest-income households receiving SNAP benefits with little to no income—were categorically excluded from these emergency allotments.
Fundamentally, the agency’s decision led to counterintuitive results as the lowest-income households received no additional emergency allotments. The states of California and Pennsylvania petitioned USDA to expand emergency allotments to these households, which were each denied. Litigation ensued with advocates bringing class action allegations asking federal courts to enjoin the agency from denying these states’ requests for additional funds for their poorest SNAP households.
The California and Pennsylvania courts reached different conclusions. In California, the federal court found that the advocates’ argument had “persuasive force,” but ultimately that it was up to “Congress, not the Court” to decide “how best to weigh and triage the needs of all Americans during this time of crisis.” By contrast, the Pennsylvania court held that the USDA’s argument was “illogical” and to deny 40 percent of the state’s SNAP households additional funds would render the phrase “emergency allotments” “meaningless and superfluous” as to the individuals who are precisely those “in the most dire need of emergency assistance.” Both cases were appealed, with the California case upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
In the past few weeks, the USDA announced it was settling these two cases and, as part of those settlements, was issuing new guidance to expand the emergency allotments authorized by Families First to all SNAP households, including those already receiving the maximum. Effectively, America’s lowest-income households are now eligible to receive an additional $95 or more per month in additional emergency allotments.
The agency estimates that new allotments will provide additional food assistance to an estimated 25 million people, including households with children as well as family members who are elderly or have a disability. According to the Brookings Institution’s Lauren Bauer, “It is never too late to implement good policy to reduce food insecurity. With these settlements, America’s most vulnerable families and millions of children will finally receive SNAP Emergency Allotments.”
As the pandemic continues to affect American families, the USDA’s expansion of SNAP allotments will mean that the nation’s lowest-income households will now have access to an additional $95 or more in monthly food assistance. This additional assistance can benefit both these individuals as well as the overall economy. Per USDA estimates, every dollar in new SNAP benefits increases GDP by about $1.50, a return on investment of 150 percent.