WASHINGTON — Republicans controlling the House are eyeing big cuts to food stamps as they piece together legislation to trim $261 billion from the federal budget over the next decade, hoping to forestall major Pentagon cuts.
The cuts to food stamps would reduce the monthly benefit for a family of four by almost $60, repealing increases that were enacted three years ago as part of President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus. The changes also would force up to 3 million people out of the program by tightening eligibility rules, the administration estimates.
The food-stamp cuts would total $8 billion over the coming year and $34 billion over a decade. The program has been expanded greatly over the past few years — enrollment tops 46 million nationwide, up from about 33 million in 2009 — and now costs about $80 billion a year. The average monthly benefit for a family of four is about $500, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal research and advocacy group.
Food stamps are just one of the cuts Republicans want to muscle through the House as a follow-up to the tightfisted GOP budget plan approved last month. That measure is nonbinding but instructed six House committees to come up with spending reductions as an alternative to across-the-board cuts scheduled to slam both the Pentagon and domestic agencies in January. Those required cuts are a consequence of the failure of a budget “supercommittee” to agree on a deficit-reduction plan last year.
House panels are producing legislation this week as the first step in implementing the GOP’s budget plan, starting with Judiciary panel action Tuesday on a proposal that would sharply limit damage awards in medical-malpractice lawsuits.
Today, the Ways and Means panel will weigh in with provisions to make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to claim refundable child-tax credits by requiring them to have Social Security numbers to prove they are citizens or legal workers. The panel also would eliminate a grant program to states for social services, such as day care, and would increase the amount of health-insurance subsidies under the new health care law that people must pay back if their incomes go up.
