On May 17, the Agriculture Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives released the Farm, Food and National Security Act of 2024, also known as the “Farm Bill.”
Before the bill’s release, some members of Congress, Puerto Rican leaders, and nutrition advocacy groups had called for an end of the Puerto Rico’s Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP), the block grant system providing nutrition assistance in Puerto Rico. They advocated for Congress to include Puerto Rico in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which is used in the 50 states, D.C., Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
This change is not included in the draft, which instead increases resources available to the Nutrition Assistance Program block grant for Puerto Rico and, as noted in the bill’s detailed summary, “encourages both USDA and Puerto Rico to continue to formulate a financially and operationally viable pathway toward a transition from the block grant to SNAP.”
The House proposal is different from the Senate version, which does include the NAP to SNAP transition. Congress could make this change. On May 17, the House Agriculture Committee essentially said it wasn’t ready to do so yet. It remains to be seen which position will prevail in the final law.
What’s a block grant?
A block grant is a capped sum of money available to a jurisdiction. There is no cap on SNAP. Under SNAP, states are reimbursed for a set percentage of the funds they spend on food assistance for the needy. If a natural disaster, growing population, or economic factors increase the need for nutrition assistance, the funds available for SNAP increase. With NAP, the funds provided are set and cannot be increased even if there is greater need.
Thus, the amount provided to any particular state can vary significantly. For example, in California, the state with the largest number of food stamps participants, people received a total of $5.98 billion in benefits in 2019, $7.82 billion in 2020, $11.24 billion in 2021, and $14.42 billion in 2022. In Puerto Rico, the total available funding remains the same from year to year, regardless of need. As a result, the eligibility requirements are more stringent and the amounts received are much smaller.
Who receives nutrition assistance?
According to the Pew Research Center, 12.5% of all Americans, or 41.9 million people in 22.2 million households, accessed SNAP benefits in 2023. The percentage of people receiving food stamps in Puerto Rico is much higher — 40% — because the poverty rate is much higher. New Mexico is the state with the highest percentage of food stamps recipients, at 24.5%.
California is the state with the largest number of recipients, with 1,911,000 households benefiting from SNAP. However, since California has a large population, the percentage of recipients is comparable to the national average.
Why is Puerto Rico different?
Puerto Rico is different because, since it is a territory, it is legal for Congress to treat Puerto Rico differently from the states. In 1992, the Government Accountability Office explained, “In response to concerns about the size, expense, and management of the Food Stamp Program in Puerto Rico, the Congress enacted section 116 of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981(P.L. 97-36,Aug. 13,1981), which replaced the Food Stamp Program in Puerto Rico with a capped block grant of $826 million-a $90-million, or 10-percent, reduction from the $916 million authorized to the Puerto Rican Food Stamp Program in fiscal year 1981. From fiscal years 1982 through 1986, annual block grant funding remained constant while inflation reduced consumer purchasing power by a total of about 4 percent for the 5 year period.”
In short, Congress intentionally reduced the nutrition assistance available to Puerto Rico, continuing to provide less than the Island needed even as need increased. This was done because of concerns about the cost.
Under the U.S. Constitution, Congress cannot decide that New Mexico’s food stamps are just too expensive and quit paying for food assistance needed by the U.S. citizens of New Mexico. States must all be treated equally. Territories can be treated differently.
In “An Econometric Analysis of the Effects of Reductions in Food Stamp Benefits and Cash-out in Puerto Rico,” Marianne T. Hill and Alan T. Udall reported that the effects of the change from SNAP to NAP included a 2% reduction in consumption by Puerto Ricans. Other sources of nutritional assistance did not appear to make up the difference; people simply had less to eat. This could not happen in a state.
States have the protection of the U.S. Constitution and proportional voting representation in the U.S. Congress. Unincorporated territories like Puerto Rico do not.
