KEY FINDINGS
- In 2021, the Biden administration rushed through a 27 percent hike to food stamp benefits—the largest permanent increase in the program’s history.
- Monthly food stamp spending more than doubled between 2019 and 2022, reaching record highs.
- Food stamp spending fuels inflation, driving up grocery prices for all Americans.
- Grocery prices have risen by at least 15 percent due to increases in food stamp spending.
- Congress could save taxpayers more than $193 billion by repealing Biden’s unlawful food stamp expansion.
THE BOTTOM LINE: Congress should repeal President Biden’s unlawful food stamp expansion and require congressional approval for all future costly executive actions.
Overview
In 2021, the Biden administration rushed through the largest permanent increase in food stamp benefits since the program was created, hiking benefits by an average of 27 percent.1 The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) violated internal control standards, canceled formal peer-review processes, and even ignored its chief economist to expedite the expansion.2
This unlawful expansion—which bypassed Congress—will cost taxpayers $250 billion over the next decade and has heavily contributed to soaring grocery prices.3 Congress should repeal President Biden’s unlawful food stamp expansion and ensure this type of executive overreach cannot happen again. In doing so, Congress could save taxpayers more than $193 billion over the next decade.
Food stamp spending has exploded in recent years
Food stamp spending reached a record-high $119 billion in 2022, a sixfold increase over the last two decades, with the vast majority of that growth occurring in the last three years.4-5 In December 2019, for example, taxpayers were spending roughly $4.5 billion per month on food stamp benefits.6 But by December 2022, monthly food stamp spending had skyrocketed to nearly $11 billion.7
