Food and Nutrition Programs

The nutrition programs of the federal government include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly called the Food Stamp program) and various child nutrition programs (including the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC). CBO projects spending for those programs under current law, estimates the budgetary cost of legislative proposals, and analyzes policy options and issues related to the programs.

  • United States Capitol Building in Washington, DC
    Report
    A Review of CBO’s Estimate of the Effects of the Recovery Act on SNAP

    In 2009, the Recovery Act boosted monthly benefits for SNAP. The resulting increase in spending on SNAP benefits from 2009 to 2013 was greater than CBO had estimated. This report discusses that underestimate and the reasons for it.

  • Report
    The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

    One in seven U.S. residents received benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in 2011, at a total cost of $78 billion. Spending on SNAP benefits more than doubled between 2007 and 2011.