Debt ceiling didn’t cut SNAP – and it’ll stay a huge program.

Social Security, Medicare, and public healthcare were political sacred cows spared from cuts by both parties. Republicans said “no deal” on tax hikes or cuts to military spending or veterans benefits. Likewise, the GOP rebuffed Biden’s entreaties for tax hikes as a political non-starter.

But one area of federal spending that surprisingly did not see significant impact from the debt ceiling deal was in the area of SNAP – the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or the program formerly identified as food stamps.

On SNAP, the deal increased work requirements through 2030 for recipients ages 50 to 54, but exempted those of all ages who are homeless, veterans or youth ages 18 to 24 who aged out of foster care. The Congressional Budget Office projected that the deal could actually add about 80,000 to the SNAP rolls due to the exemptions.

Between 2000 and 2021, U.S. Department of Agriculture data shows the food stamp program added 24 million recipients nationally with most of that growth attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic. In FY2022, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service reported providing assistance to 41.2 million Americans.

Even after the debt ceiling deal, the Congressional Budget Office projects that SNAP will spend nearly $1.2 trillion from FY2024 through FY2033 or some $120 billion a year for ten fiscal years.