More than 47 million Americans who receive food stamps will see their benefits decrease starting Friday, just as Congress begins negotiations on further cuts to the program, the Associated Press reported.
A temporary benefit from the 2009 economic stimulus that increased food stamp dollars will no longer be available, starting Nov. 1. According to the Agriculture Department, that means a family of four receiving food stamps will receive $36 less a month. The maximum payment for a family of four will shrink from $668 a month to $632, or $432 over the course of a year.
Negotiations on the farm bill, including cuts to the SNAP program, began Wednesday and if passed the cuts are expected to reduce the almost $80 billion program by almost $4 billion next year. Senate farm bill would cut a 10th of that amount, with Democrats and President Barack Obama opposing major cuts.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits are set to decrease for more than 47 million lower-income people, 1 in 7 Americans, most of who live in households with children, seniors or people with disabilities.
The benefit cuts "will be close to catastrophic for many people," said Ross Fraser, a spokesman for Feeding America, the nation's largest domestic hunger-relief charity, which estimates this week's SNAP reduction, will result in a loss of nearly 2 billion meals for poor families next year.
The cost of the program has more than doubled since 2008 as the economy has struggled. Republicans say the program should only be given to the neediest of people. Farm-state lawmakers have been pushing the farm bill for more than two years. According to CBS News, if the bill is not passed by the end of the year, the prices on milk could raise.
"It took us years to get here but we are here," House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., said. "Let's not take years to get it done."
As Congress debates the cuts to the program, charities are preparing for the farm bill reductions as well as the scheduled cuts taking place Friday.
"Charities cannot fill the gap for the cuts being proposed to SNAP," said Maura Daly of Feeding America, a network of the nation's food banks. "We are very concerned about the impact on the charitable system."
Statistics show that roughly half of all U.S. children go on food stamps sometime during their childhood; half of all adults are on them sometime between the ages of 18 and 65. The USDA estimates that, as of last year, nearly 15 percent of American families, or 18 million households, lacked enough food at least some of the time to ensure that all family members could stay healthy.
Another group with lots of members in SNAP: Veterans. U.S. Census Bureau data show that, in 2011, some 900,000 former U.S. military personnel lived in households that used food stamps.
"The cuts are going to make millions of people hungry," said Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, a not-for-profit public policy firm focused on ending hunger in the U.S. "It's going to send people into a charitable system that's already overwhelmed and screaming for help itself. And it will make life harder and worse for millions of children, seniors, veterans and people with disabilities."
Food stamps are the government's biggest nutrition-assistance program for low-income people and, along with federal unemployment benefits, a key support system for the most vulnerable Americans.