Feds cut SNAP funds as food prices climb

President Biden has been eager to stick a fork in the coronavirus pandemic — he stated it was “over” last September, and declared an end to the national emergency on May 11. That brings to a close the emergency pandemic programs that helped so many Americans stay afloat during COVID’s worst.

There’s one problem, however. While the COVID pandemic may be “over,” the inflation epidemic is still ongoing — and still eroding the public’s buying power.

This particular scourge didn’t originate on foreign shores, it’s the result of runaway government spending, exacerbated by the Russia-Ukraine crisis. The Biden Administration passed legislation with price tags in the trillions, and the ordinary citizen is paying for it.

What’s worse is that those who were already struggling and benefited the most from increased aid during the pandemic will be in worse financial shape once the COVID-era programs stop.

In Massachusetts, residents have received additional federal SNAP dollars since March 2020. These extra payments were authorized by the first big federal pandemic package, at the time providing extra funds to about 60% of Massachusetts families, Victoria Negus of the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute told State House News Service.

In 2021, the Biden administration updated the policy guaranteeing all SNAP households at least $95 in extra funds. On average, the SNAP emergency allotment has added an additional $151 to a household’s normal monthly benefit of $335 in Massachusetts, according to the Department of Transitional Assistance.

A year-end package approved by Congress in December disconnected the extra SNAP benefits from the end of the federal public health emergency, meaning the final federal payments are authorized for this month, three months before the federal public health emergency will come to a close in May. Brilliant.

It’s not just that these extra benefits will disappear faster than expected, it’s that struggling families must now stretch “regular” benefits in an economy where inflation sits at 6.5%. According to the USDA, food prices are expected to grow more slowly in 2023 than in 2022 but still at above historical average rates. The agency forecasts that all food prices are predicted to increase 7.1%, with food-at-home prices predicted to increase 8.0%.

For families with meager budgets, that’s an emergency.

Gov. Maura Healey proposed a supplemental budget on Jan. 30 allocating $130 million to provide SNAP recipients with 40% of their previously enhanced allotment for another three months, which her office called an “offramp” to the end of expanded benefits.

Healey and other governors shouldn’t have to scramble for ways to make up for lost federal aid.

That responsibility lies with the Biden administration and Congress, who declared the pandemic over without considering the deleterious effects of inflation on those who relied on additional aid, and who passed a budget which prematurely jettisoned SNAP benefits from funding.

The bottom line for freespenders on Capitol Hill: You break it, you bought it.