National Review
Biden is setting a dangerous precedent
President Joe Biden’s recent executive order to expand food assistance to American families, while well-intentioned, represents a substantial reach from the executive branch and a blatant attempt to overturn Congressional intent. If successful, this dangerous precedent would open the door to major expansions of the social safety net without Congressional approval. Congress must resist the president’s attempts to subvert the intention of the existing law. Less than a week after Biden’s presidency, the new government issued a series of executive orders focused on the economic relief of COVID-19. One of these requests aims to expand food assistance through the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps. In it, President Biden instructed the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to “take immediate steps to make it easier for the most affected families to apply and claim more generous benefits in the critical area of food and nutrition assistance.” In reality, the executive order asks a federal agency – the USDA – to intentionally misinterpret the Family Law and subvert Congress’ constitutional authority over the legislative process. The Family Law, which was passed in March 2020, clearly outlined that states could request exemptions from the Department of Agriculture to provide emergency quotas for SNAP families “not exceeding the maximum monthly quota applicable for family size”. In normal times, 60 percent of families enrolled in SNAP do not receive the maximum benefit because they have income from other sources – such as income – that they can use to buy food. Emergency appropriations recognized that millions of people lost jobs or faced further job disruptions when the pandemic struck, and that SNAP registrants were at particular risk of job loss shortly after the pandemic. Rather than requiring SNAP families to report a change in employment or income to the state agency and wait for bureaucrats to recalculate their benefits, emergency quotas have given each SNAP beneficiary the maximum allowed. It is true that this was not a very directed effort. Some families received an increase in SNAP dollars without a change in household income or financial circumstances. But the urgency of the economic shock caused by the pandemic and the job instability that persists today demanded an equally expeditious political response. The Department of Agriculture, under President Trump, has approved emergency distribution plans for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands – but only in accordance with the law. The department has extended these emergency assignment exemptions countless times, most recently extending them until January 2021. The USDA – and Congress itself – also offered flexibility to states after the pandemic. According to federal government spending data, all of the efforts described above have increased SNAP benefits by more than 40 percent in the last fiscal year, with more than $ 31 billion in additional spending compared to the fiscal year. 2019. Collective actions were initiated in Pennsylvania and California by people who disagree with the interpretation of the USDA law: the regular SNAP plus emergency quotas cannot extend benefits beyond the maximum benefit level. Prosecutors argue that the law allows the USDA to approve emergency distributions for the maximum benefit amount, which, if true, would mean that families could receive the maximum SNAP benefit plus the maximum emergency distribution – essentially doubling the amounts benefits. A California federal judge has agreed with the USDA, while the Pennsylvania case is ongoing. The Biden government’s executive order is encouraging its USDA to misinterpret the 2020 law in a similar way. The legislative text is not ambiguous. It is difficult to imagine Congress being clearer than “meeting temporary food needs not exceeding the maximum monthly quota applicable for family size”. If Congress wanted to give people more than the SNAP maximum, it would have done so. In fact, Congress ended up doing just that – expanding the benefits by 15% in the COVID-19 relief package approved last month. If the Biden government succeeds in this attempt, it will open the door to a series of executive actions aimed at expanding the safety net without Congressional action. If political appointees in the Biden administration feel free from the law, we will see greater benefits directed at an increasing number of people. Such action not only undermines the integrity of the social safety net by bypassing Congress, but ignores the separation of powers enshrined in the founding documents of our republic. The American public has largely supported Congress’ efforts to provide economic relief to families in distress. We will keep that authority in place.