Author: Tracy Roof, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Richmond

Who gets SNAP benefits to buy groceries and what the government pays for the program – in 5 charts

Tracy Roof, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of RichmondLeave a Comment on Who gets SNAP benefits to buy groceries and what the government pays for the program – in 5 charts

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has helped low-income Americans buy groceries for decades with few disruptions. But on Nov. 1, 2025, the federal government halted the flow of funds to states to distribute as SNAP benefits. The Trump administration blames this unprecedented disruption on the federal government shutdown, which began a month earlier. Following multiple […]

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President Trump scraps the nation’s most comprehensive food insecurity report − making it harder to know how many Americans struggle to get enough food

Tracy Roof, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of RichmondLeave a Comment on President Trump scraps the nation’s most comprehensive food insecurity report − making it harder to know how many Americans struggle to get enough food

The Trump administration announced on Sept. 20, 2025, that it plans to stop releasing food insecurity data. The federal government has tracked and analyzed this data for the past three decades, but it plans to stop after publishing statistics pertaining to 2024 data. The Conversation U.S. asked Tracy Roof, a political scientist who has researched […]

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‘Big’ legislative package shifts more of SNAP’s costs to states, saving federal dollars but causing fewer Americans to get help paying for food

Tracy Roof, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of RichmondLeave a Comment on ‘Big’ legislative package shifts more of SNAP’s costs to states, saving federal dollars but causing fewer Americans to get help paying for food

The legislative package that President Donald Trump signed into law on July 4, 2025, has several provisions that will shrink the safety net, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, long known as food stamps. SNAP spending will decline by an estimated US$186 billion through 2034 as a result of several changes Congress made to the […]

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GOP lawmakers eye SNAP cuts, which would scale back benefits that help low-income people buy food at a time of high food prices

Tracy Roof, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of RichmondLeave a Comment on GOP lawmakers eye SNAP cuts, which would scale back benefits that help low-income people buy food at a time of high food prices

Congress may soon consider whether to cut spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the main way the government helps low-income Americans put food on the table. The Conversation U.S. asked Tracy Roof, a political scientist who has researched the history of government nutrition programs, to explain what’s going on and why the effort to […]

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