President Biden signed two executive orders on Friday, one of which would increase federal food assistance and streamline the delivery of stimulus controls, while the president tries to stabilize the economy without the assistance of Congress in the midst of the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We have to act now,” Biden said in statements before signing the orders. “We can’t, we don’t want to, let people go hungry.”
Biden has proposed a $ 1.9 trillion relief plan in Congress, but it is unclear whether he will get enough Republican support to pass it on a bipartisan basis. Until Congress can pass another assistance bill, Mr. Biden’s actions are intended to take steps to stabilize the economy.
Some Republicans have questioned whether a second, larger bill is still needed after Congress passed a $ 900 billion bill in December. But in his statements Friday, Mr Biden said the most recent relief bill was just a “down payment”.
“We need more action and we need to move forward quickly,” Biden said. “We’re in a national emergency. We have to act like we’re in a national emergency. So we have to move with everything we have.”
In the first order, Mr. Biden calls on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to allow states to increase the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits – commonly known as food stamps – by 15%. Recently, Congress passed a $ 1 trillion relief bill that increased the maximum SNAP benefit by 15%, but that didn’t help 40% of SNAP beneficiaries who already had the maximum benefit. Biden’s order tells the USDA to “consider issuing new guidelines that allow states to increase SNAP emergency allocations for those who need it most,” according to a fact sheet provided by the White House. which would mean that an additional 12 million people get improved benefits.
The order would also increase Pandemic-EBT, an electronic debit card program for students who would have qualified to eat for free or at a reduced price at school. Mr. Biden directs the USDA to “consider issuing new guidelines to increase P-EBT benefits by approximately 15% to accurately reflect the costs of food shortages and make it easier for households to claim benefits”. According to the White House, this could provide a family with three children with additional support of $ 100 a month.
Under the order, the USDA would also reevaluate the Thrifty Food Plan, the basis for determining SNAP benefits. According to the White House fact sheet, the plan “is not up to date with the economic realities faced by families with more difficulties when trying to buy and prepare healthy food.”
Due to the economic consequences of the pandemic, more American families have struggled to put food on the table in recent months. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research institute, reported that nearly one in five adults with children reported that their families sometimes or often did not have enough to eat in the past seven days according to the data. collected at the USDA between December 9-21. Black and Latino adults are also more than twice as likely to report that their families did not have enough food than white families.
Increasing SNAP profits would also help the lean economy. During an economic recession, more people tend to sign up for SNAP. These enrollees spend this federal aid, which in turn generates revenue for those who produce, transport, and sell food. A 2019 analysis by the USDA’s Economic Research Service found that a $ 1 billion increase in SNAP profits could increase the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) by $ 1.54 million and support close to 14,000 jobs.
Biden’s order also aims to streamline the delivery of incentive checks for those who have not yet received their direct payments. Congress passed a bill to provide $ 600 in direct payments to Americans who earned a certain threshold last month. Biden, which supports raising payments to $ 2,000, will also ask Congress to pass legislation that would provide additional direct controls of $ 1,400.
Biden also issued a second executive order to improve bargaining power and fundraising protections for federal workers and directed the Office of Personnel Management to make recommendations to raise the minimum wage for federal employees to $ 15 per hour.