DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Month by month, more of the roughly 40 million Americans who get help buying groceries through the federal food stamp program are seeing their benefits plunge even as the nation struggles with the biggest increase in food costs in decades.
Highlights
- The U.S.
- Department of Agriculture began offering the increased benefit in April 2020 in response to surging unemployment after the COVID-19 pandemic swept over the country.
- Republican leaders argue that the extra benefits were intended to only temporarily help people forced out of work by the pandemic.
- Iowa this month was the most recent place to slash the benefits.
- The payments to low-income individuals and families are dropping as governors end disaster declarations and opt out of an ongoing federal program that made their states eligible for dramatic increases in SNAP benefits, also known as food stamps.
- The entire program would come to a halt if the federal government decides to end its public health emergency, though the Biden administration so far hasn’t signaled an intention to do so.