SNAP in the States: Federalism and Administrative Options in Crisis and Recovery

• In Event: The State Executive Branch In and Out of Crisis

Abstract

This paper will look at the pattern of federalism in administration of the food stamp program, now known as SNAP, during economic crises and periods of recovery. In recent decades the states have converged in their use of waivers to make the program more accessible during economic downturns, with state variation returning as the economy improved. During the 1970s, the Nixon and Carter administrations established national standards of eligibility and benefits in the food stamp program with greater federal oversight of state administration of the federally funded program. This was largely a reaction to publicity of the stark inequalities in the distribution of nutritional assistance during the 1960s, especially in the South. After becoming the first anti-poverty program with uniform national standards, food stamps survived several efforts to convert it into a block grant in the 1980 and 1990s. Alarmed by falling enrollment after welfare reform, the federal government began to offer states more options to make enrolling in and staying on food stamps easier. The mixed uptake of these waivers across states led to increasing variation in access. But the Great Recession once again led to a more uniform program as more and more states, regardless of political orientation, took advantage of these federal waivers. With economic recovery, the debate over government dependency and state variation reemerged. But with the arrival of the pandemic, widespread uptake of new waivers again brought more uniformity in the administration of the program across both blue states and red. As the economic effects of the pandemic eased, some states again began to drop options making SNAP more accessible, while others preserved them, returning to a pattern of more variation in administration of the nutrition assistance across states.

Author

• Tracy Roof, University of Richmond