Food and Nutrition Programs

CBO responds to a request for an analysis of the distributional effects of H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and updates the preliminary analysis it provided in a letter dated May 20, 2025.

CBO is looking for new research on how nutritional standards in SNAP would affect recipients’ food choices, health outcomes, and health care spending.

CBO periodically issues a compendium of policy options and their estimated effects on the federal budget. This report presents 76 options for altering spending or revenues to reduce federal budget deficits over the next decade.

In response to a request from House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, CBO assesses the effect of an increase in the value of the Thrifty Food Plan on labor force participation.

CBO issues a volume that contains short descriptions of 59 policy options that would each reduce the federal budget deficit by less than $300 billion over the next 10 years.

CBO analyzes the effects of work requirements and work supports on employment and income of participants in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and Medicaid.

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.

CBO examines several options that would reduce federal spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the effects they would have on households with different amounts of income.

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.