Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan.
Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., this week released a report from USDA’s Office of Inspector General that USDA's Food and Nutrition Service has not effectively assessed the impact of additional SNAP spending through the American Recovery and Investment Act.

Roberts said in a news release that Congress should take the lack of data into consideration in writing the next farm bill.

FNS has responded that it is interested in developing new new analytical methods for SNAP, but that analyzing the impact of the program on nonparticipants as well as participants is “complex,” and OIG has accepted that reaction as a resolution of the matter.

Roberts has introduced a bill to cut $36 billion in SNAP spending over 10 years, partly through ending the temporary increase in monthly SNAP benefits provided under the Recovery Act.

The Recovery Act provided an increase in SNAP benefits that has cost approximately $45.5 billion. Obama administration officials have said that the increased spending has acted as an economic stimulus, but OIG found that three of the four measures USDA uses to measure outcomes did not address how well the additional funds achieved the Recovery Act goals.

The three performance measures “reflected outputs, such as the dollar amount of benefits issued and administrative costs expended,” OIG said.

“The one outcome performance measure, which deals with food insecurity, did not directly measure the impact of Recovery Act funds because it did not measure how well SNAP assisted those most impacted by the recession,” OIG added.

An FNS spokeswoman said in an email that “USDA tracks the participation rate among people eligible for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits as well as the national prevalence of hunger and food insecurity, two key performance measures.”

“SNAP has demonstrated its effectiveness by lifting millions of low-income Americans out of poverty during the economic downturn and reducing the depth and severity of poverty in both rural and urban areas,” the spokeswoman wrote.

“The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) increased SNAP benefit levels and expanded SNAP eligibility for jobless adults without children.Because of these enhancements, SNAP participation and food spending by low-income households increased. In addition, food insecurity among low-income households declined by 2.2 percent whereas food insecurity among households with incomes somewhat above SNAP-eligibility levels remained unchanged.”

An FNS source also noted to The Hagstrom Report that FNS is trying to refine its approach and would be willing to consider any recommendations that OIG might offer to improve its methodology.

The FNS source also noted that Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics did an analysis of the impact of the Recovery Act that estimated that for every dollar the Recovery act spent on the temporary increase in SNAP benefits, the GDP increased by $1.72.

USDA conducted its own analyses that found that an increase of $1 billion in SNAP expenditures is estimated to increase economic activity (GDP) by $1.79 billion and that the additional Recovery Act funds reduced the prevalence of food insecurity by 2.2 percent, the FNS source added.

• OIG: Recovery Act Performance Measures for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
• Food Assistance National Input-Output Multiplier (FANOM) Model and Stimulus Effects on SNAP
• — Report Summary
• Food Security Improved Following the 2009 ARRA Increase in SNAP Benefits
• — Report Summary
• Mark Zandi: Too Soon to Pull Back Fiscal Policy Support