RYAN’S OPPORTUNITY GRANTS COULD CUT SNAP BENEFITS

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s proposal to combine 11 federal categorical anti-poverty programs, including SNAP, into a single block grant is, as intended, spurring conversation. Ryan posits that Opportunity Grants will give states the flexibility to deal with poverty by working more directly with people in every facet of their lives. Pooled resources and case managers would be closer to the ground than federal programs, and different situations call for different solutions. Critics of the proposal caution that any increase in state flexibility would be far outweighed by losses from shifting SNAP funds into a block grant. They contrast the relative inability of TANF– a block grant – during the recent recession to respond to growing need to the adaptability of SNAP, which continuously responded to changes in need. SNAP is the most widely used of the 11 programs combined, and would be robbed of its ability to adapt quickly to economic fluctuations, which is just what happened when when the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program was replaced by TANF block grants.

Source: Council of State Governments, 8/4/14, Opportunity Grants; Economic Policy Institute, 7/30/14, Opportunity Grants II