EXCLUSIVE: Watchdog Report Highlights Enormous Cost Of Biden’s ‘Unlawful’ Food Stamp Expansion

• President Joe Biden’s food stamp expansion unilaterally increased spending for the program by 27% — the largest food stamp increase in history — costing taxpayers $250 billion over the next 10 years, according to a report first shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
• The Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) argues the expansion of the “Thrifty Food Plan” is “unlawful,” as it didn’t receive Congressional approval, and is encouraging lawmakers to repeal the price hike or reform the benefits to save taxpayers more than $150 billion over the next decade.
• “The Biden administration has the printing press going at full speed, churning out new food stamp spending by the billions — all without approval from Congress,” Jonathan Bain, senior research fellow at the FGA, told the DCNF in a statement.

President Joe Biden’s “unlawful” food stamp expansion will cost taxpayers $250 billion over the next decade if Congress doesn’t intervene, according to a report first shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Under the Biden administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) implemented the largest food stamp increase in history, unilaterally hiking the program’s spending by 27%, according to a report from the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA). The FGA argues that the food stamp expansion is “unlawful” as it did not receive Congressional approval, and the group is encouraging lawmakers to repeal the funding — or, at least, reform the benefits to save taxpayer dollars.

“Congress holds the purse strings. They can freeze Biden’s unlawful Thrifty Food Plan spending as part of the Farm Bill and save taxpayers $150 billion before it’s spent,” Jonathan Bain, senior research fellow at the FGA, told the DCNF in a statement. “With cost-of-living concerns on the rise, American families can’t afford the Biden administration’s push to feed inflation with reckless federal spending.”

If Congress doesn’t repeal the Thrifty Food Plan’s expansion in its entirety, lawmakers should revert funding back to 2020 levels and freeze maximum monthly allotments, according to the report. These changes to the food stamp program would free up more than $150 billion over the next 10 years. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Biden Is Imposing The Costliest Regulatory Agenda In US History, Report Finds)

The USDA updated the program to replace the 2006 version of the Thrifty Food Plan, which went into effect in October 2021, according to the agency’s website. Under the revised program, families receive increased Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) allotments, which they can decide how to spend “according to their food needs,” the plan reads.

The FGA argues the food stamp expansion goes beyond the authority granted in the 2018 Farm Bill, which requires the USDA to periodically update the Thrifty Food Plan. The reevaluations should only be used to update the program “based on current food prices, food composition data, consumption patterns, and dietary guidance,” according to the bill’s text.

The historic food stamp spending hike breaks the 45-year precedent of “cost neutrality policy within the food stamp program,” according to the report.

Stacy Dean has been serving as the deputy under secretary for USDA’s Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, the agency which oversees the food stamp program, since the Biden administration took office in 2021. Biden has twice–nominated Dean to serve as under secretary for the agency, but her confirmation has been stalled in the Senate.

Dean previously served as Vice President for Food Assistance Policy at the liberal organization Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and also worked under the Clinton administration’s Office of Management and Budget.

The deputy under secretary was pressed on the issue during a Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry hearing in February, to which Dean claimed the spending increase was “based on Congress’ directive,” referring to the regular reevaluations.

“USDA took a careful and considered approach, using the same underlying mathematical model used in previous reviews and only making changes if there was clear and convincing evidence to do so,” the USDA’s website describing the change reads. “The methods used to reevaluate the Thrifty Food Plan were peer reviewed by subject matter experts from other USDA agencies.”

The FGA also argues that Biden’s food stamp expansion has led to increased inflation, as roughly 55% of new government spending comes from it, according to the report. Taxpayers were spending an additional $11 billion per month on the food stamp program at the end of 2022 — more than double the price in 2019.

“The Biden administration has the printing press going at full speed, churning out new food stamp spending by the billions — all without approval from Congress,” Bain told the DCNF.

Neither the White House nor the USDA immediately responded to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

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