Press Releases
Finstad Leads House Agriculture Committee Oversight of USDA’s Thrifty Food Plan Update
March 8, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Brad Finstad, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Nutrition, Foreign Agriculture, and Horticulture, led a letter requesting answers from United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack regarding ongoing Congressional oversight and accountability of the agency’s 2021 Thrifty Food Plan (TFP) update.
“As the House Committee on Agriculture continues our work to pass a strong and effective Farm Bill that meets the needs of farmers and rural communities while keeping the bipartisan Farm Bill coalition intact, there are several questions that remain unanswered related to USDA’s unilateral, $256 billion increase to SNAP benefits, said Rep. Finstad. “This action put a target on the back of the Farm Bill, and I will continue to demand transparency and thorough oversight to ensure that American taxpayer dollars are respected.”
Background:
The 2018 Farm Bill authorized a mandatory reevaluation of the Thrifty Food Plan’s market basket. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) determined, based on more than 40 years of precedent, that this provision would be cost-neutral. However, when USDA updated TFP in 2021, as directed by Congress, the update resulted in a $256 billion spending increase over 10 years. This increase was implemented without Congressional input or authorization. In 2022, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report determining that the process by which TFP was updated was an egregious form of executive overreach and consisted of flawed decision-making.
Read the full letter here.
“As the House Committee on Agriculture continues our work to pass a strong and effective Farm Bill that meets the needs of farmers and rural communities while keeping the bipartisan Farm Bill coalition intact, there are several questions that remain unanswered related to USDA’s unilateral, $256 billion increase to SNAP benefits, said Rep. Finstad. “This action put a target on the back of the Farm Bill, and I will continue to demand transparency and thorough oversight to ensure that American taxpayer dollars are respected.”
Background:
The 2018 Farm Bill authorized a mandatory reevaluation of the Thrifty Food Plan’s market basket. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) determined, based on more than 40 years of precedent, that this provision would be cost-neutral. However, when USDA updated TFP in 2021, as directed by Congress, the update resulted in a $256 billion spending increase over 10 years. This increase was implemented without Congressional input or authorization. In 2022, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report determining that the process by which TFP was updated was an egregious form of executive overreach and consisted of flawed decision-making.
Read the full letter here.
