Economic Recovery Legislation is Now Law!
President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law on February 17; the bill was passed by the House and Senate on February 13.
Many of our priorities are included in the final bill. The boost to SNAP/Food Stamps, the expansion of the Child Tax Credit, and the investments in early child care will help millions. But, it is up to the anti-hunger community to make sure that people are aware of these improvements and to encourage states to be more aggressive in outreach to their intended beneficiaries. There is a lot of work to do. In the coming weeks, we will have ongoing analyses of the provisions and what they mean for our work.
Highlights of the Act:
SNAP/Food Stamps
Includes $19.9 billion for increased SNAP/Food Stamp spending. Most of that goes to boosting benefits, which translates to an initial 13.6 percent increase in the value of the Thrifty Food Plan. (The increase phases out over time.) It is likely that this will begin with the April 2009 allotments. It suspends time limits on eligibility for jobless adults without dependents through FY 2010. There is also $295 million for SNAP/Food Stamp administrative costs, almost all of it to states. Of that, $4.5 million goes to USDA for oversight (FY 09 payments to flow to states no later than 60 days after enactment). The formula will be based on states' shares of SNAP/Food Stamp households in last 12 months (75 percent) and of SNAP/Food Stamp increases in last 12 months (25 percent).
WIC
Includes $500 million for the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program, with $400 million to support anticipated increases in the caseload and $100 million for Management Information Systems (MIS).
School Food Service
Provides $100 million for school food service equipment grants.
Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR)
Provides $5 million for FDPIR to allow for facility improvements and equipment upgrades.
Emergency Food and Shelter, Meals on Wheels, TEFAP
Provides other food assistance, including $100 million for Emergency Food and Shelter to help local community organizations provide food and shelter; $100 million for formula grants to states for elderly nutrition services including Meals on Wheels; and $100 million for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) to purchase commodities and $50 million for TEFAP administrative expenses.
Child Tax Credit
Provides help for the families of millions of children through an expansion of the refundable Child Tax Credit (allowing families to begin qualifying for the child tax credit when earnings go over $3,000).
Earned Income Tax Credit
Expands the Earned Income Tax Credit by providing additional relief to families with three or more children and increasing marriage penalty relief.
CACFP/Head Start
Provides $1.1 billion for Early Head Start and $1 billion for Head Start, which provide comprehensive development services to low-income infants and preschool children - thereby providing services for 110,000 additional infants and children. Because virtually all such children receive meals and snacks paid for by CACFP, almost all of these added children will receive these nutrition benefits under existing law.
Child Care Development Block Grant
Provides $2 billion for the Child Care Development Block Grant to provide child care services to an additional 300,000 children in low-income families while their parents go to work. Many of these children will also get CACFP nutrition benefits under current law.
Unemployment Benefits
Continues through December 2009 the extended unemployment benefits program (which provides up to 33 weeks of extended benefits) that is otherwise scheduled to begin to phase out at the end of March 2009 - thereby helping an additional 3.5 million jobless workers.
Increases unemployment benefits for 20 million jobless workers by $25 per week, and encourages states to modernize their UI systems to keep up with the changing workforce with expanded coverage.
Social Security/SSI
Gives a one-time extra payment of $250 to SSI recipients.
