A large cross-section of Americans is at risk of falling below the poverty line as the program that provided more than 32 million people with extra SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits during the pandemic is set to end. Families received at least $95 extra per month to spend on food.
In place since 2020, it provided an emergency allotment of benefits as an unprecedented number of people faced added financial hardship as COVID-19 spread. Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act at the end of 2022, which concludes the expanded program in February. The change comes as food prices have continued to skyrocket at grocery stores.
During the pandemic, nearly 4.2 million Americans were able to stay above the poverty line with the additional aid at the end of 2021, according to a study conducted by the Urban Institute, with poverty reduced by 9.6 percent in states with the SNAP expansion. But in states where the program has already ended, there have been reports of people struggling to buy necessary food items.
"The emergency allotments were always intended to be temporary and they did tremendous good during a very difficult time in our country," Stacy Dean, USDA deputy undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, told the Associated Press.
Older Americans on social security will feel the reduction in SNAP funds particularly hard as a recent 8.7 percent cost of living adjustment will be unlikely to offset the loss of the benefits.
A group of 33 states including California and New York are suing Meta Platforms Inc. for harming young people’s mental health and contributing the youth mental health crisis by knowingly designing features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children to its platforms.
In a courtroom showdown five years in the making, Donald Trump's fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen testified Tuesday that he worked to boost the supposed value of the former president's assets to “whatever number Trump told us to."
Republican Tom Emmer abruptly abandoned his bid to become House speaker, withdrawing hours after winning the internal party nomination once it became clear he would not have enough support from GOP colleagues for the gavel.
Eighty-five-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz spoke of a “hell that we never knew before and never thought we would experience” as she described the harrowing Oct. 7 assault on her kibbutz by Hamas militants and the terror of being taken hostage into the Gaza Strip.
Jenna Ellis, an attorney and prominent conservative media figure, reached a deal with prosecutors Tuesday and pleaded guilty to a reduced charge over efforts to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia.
U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez returns to court Monday to enter an expected not guilty plea to a conspiracy charge alleging he acted as an agent of the Egyptian government when he chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
