Federal Food Assistance in Disasters Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
Revised Feb. 23, 2006 |
| Report Number |
RL33102 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
Joe Richardson, Domestic Social Policy Division |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
| Older Revisions |
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Summary:
The Food Stamp program, child nutrition programs, and federally donated food commodities
delivered through relief organizations provide major support in disasters like Hurricanes Katrina and
Rita. Existing laws authorize the Agriculture Department to change eligibility and benefit rules to
facilitate emergency aid, and, in the short term, funding and federally provided food commodities
are available without the need for additional appropriations.
With regard to the Katrina and Rita hurricanes, numerous food assistance program rules were
waived -- e.g., granting one to three months of food stamp benefits to affected households,
authorizing free school meals to affected children, and greatly easing eligibility documentation
requirements.
However, Congress faced a number of issues with regard to the longer term -- e.g., who should
pay for extra administrative costs, whether to extend the application of disaster rules beyond one to
three months, costs associated with replenishing commodity stocks used to help hurricane victims,
additional funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and
Children (the WIC program) in affected areas, how to deal with those made temporarily eligible (like
some noncitizens normally barred from participation in food stamps), and whether to increase normal
benefits and further loosen eligibility rules for those affected.
Several bills were introduced in response to the hurricanes ( S. 1695 and
H.R. 3809 were the most prominent). They were intended to expand on the steps
already taken by the Administration. For example, they would have lengthened the period during
which disaster rules apply, further eased eligibility and benefit rules for food stamps, and mandated
extra money to support the distribution of food commodities and the WIC program. But in the
end, no significant action was taken, other than (1) small one-time increases in
appropriations (totaling to $10 million) to replenish some commodity stocks used for hurricane-relief
purposes and pay for commodity distribution costs, and (2) a $120 million transfer of funding from
food stamp appropriations to support extra child nutrition costs.
This version is the final report on food assistance related to the 2005 hurricanes, and will not
be updated.
