Opening Statements

Remarks as prepared:

Welcome to the next hearing in our review of the Past, Present, and Future of SNAP. Today we’ll discuss and examine the government’s duplication and inefficiencies of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Taxpayers and recipients deserve a thoughtful and thorough review of SNAP. They also deserve to know its relationship with other nutrition programs and how that affects families around the country, as well as taxpayers.

I want to stress the importance of today’s hearing and the Committee’s goal to ensure SNAP has a clear mission and operates accordingly. That goal should help Americans; both helping to recognize no one should go hungry and highlighting the value of helping people get out of poverty.

As we heard in the last hearing, our government is not alone in supporting the nutritional needs of Americans. Today, we’ll look inward at how government nutrition assistance programs operate. According to GAO, there are at least 18 different nutrition assistance programs - and together - they spend over $100 billion annually of taxpayer funds. While SNAP accounts for three out four dollars of that today, it’s not alone in providing nutrition assistance.

Over the past several decades, numerous programs have been created to target various populations with little to no regard in coordinating with existing programs or concern for overlap. This has created a web of programs, causing confusion for recipients who are trying to feed their families and difficulties for states trying to administer these programs.

The reality is that a majority of SNAP households are also eligible and receive benefits from one of the other major nutrition assistance programs. In some cases, multiple programs might be funding the same meals. For example, recipients may receive USDA commodity food packages through the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, while also receiving SNAP benefits. What impact does that have on a family? Is there duplication while there are still needs that are not being met? We want to ensure every person has access to food and this overlap could be causing confusion in the system, in some cases overlooking individuals altogether who don’t have access to any programs. 

Our job today is to figure out where overlap, duplication, or inefficiency exists. Then, we can more expertly target our limited resources to places with potential unmet needs or weaknesses in the system. Let’s continue this conversation and begin to understand how to best serve all families, because we can always do better.

I thank all of our witnesses for being here with us today and look forward to their testimony.