Does the $36 per American refer to annual, monthly, or weekly SNAP spending per person?

1. What the reporting actually measures: SNAP benefits are reported monthly per person and annually in totals

Most authoritative summaries and datasets frame SNAP in two common ways: an "average benefit per participant" usually given per month (for example, monthly benefits averaged $187.17 per person and $351.49 per household in FY2024) and aggregate federal spending presented as annual totals (about $99.8 billion in 2024) ^{[1] [2] [3]}. Policy organizations and federal data you cited (Congressional Research Service, Johns Hopkins commentary, and budget overviews) use monthly per-person averages alongside fiscal-year spending numbers ^{[1] [2] [3]}.

2. Why people quote small per-person numbers — monthly basis is standard

When analysts or journalists convert program totals into per-capita figures for communication, they most often divide annual SNAP outlays by average monthly participants and then present the benefit as a monthly per-person figure. Multiple sources explicitly report per-person benefits on a monthly basis (e.g., $187–$188/month per person is repeatedly cited by CRS, USDA summaries, CBPP, and others) ^{[1] [4] [2]}. Thus, if you encounter a small number tied to SNAP and a "per person" label, treat it as very likely monthly unless the source explicitly states "per year" or "per week" ^{[1] [4]}.

3. How $36 might be derived — available sources do not mention it, but common conversions show possibilities

Available sources do not mention "$36 per American" or explain that figure (not found in current reporting). However, common arithmetic can produce numbers in that neighborhood depending on what is being divided: dividing the approximate $100 billion annual SNAP budget by the entire U.S. population (roughly 330 million) yields about $300 per person per year — far above $36 — while dividing monthly average benefits (~$187) by 4 or so weeks gives roughly $46–$47 per week, and dividing by ~30 days gives about $6 per day ^{[1] [2]}. None of the supplied sources produce a $36 figure; therefore any use of "$36 per American" needs an explicit source explaining the denominator and time unit ^{[1] [2] [3]}.

4. Two types of per-capita claims and how they differ — benefit vs. budget

Be careful which metric a "$X per American" claim intends: (a) average SNAP benefit to participants (reported as about $187/month per person in FY2024–FY2025) — this applies only to program participants, not all Americans ^{[1] [4]}; (b) federal SNAP spending averaged across the entire U.S. population (a budget-per-resident framing) — this is rarer in reporting but would be a much smaller annual figure per U.S. resident than participant benefits. The sources you provided consistently distinguish participant-level monthly benefits from annual program totals ^{[1] [3]}.

5. How to verify the exact meaning if you see "$36 per American" in the future

Check the original context: is the author dividing annual SNAP spending by total U.S. population, by SNAP participants, or by households? Confirm whether they mean per year, per month, per week, or per day. Use primary data tables from USDA FNS or CRS tables for the precise numerator and denominator — those sources in your list provide monthly benefit averages and annual spending totals you can cite ^{[1] [5]}.

6. Bottom line and recommended wording for clarity

Based on the cited reporting, the standard unit for “per person” SNAP benefits is monthly — about $187–$188 per participant per month in recent reporting — while program spending is usually reported annually (about $99.8–$100 billion in 2024) ^{[1] [2] [3]}. Because the available sources do not mention "$36 per American," any claim using that number should be treated as ambiguous until the origin clarifies whether it is monthly, weekly, yearly, or an average diluted across the entire U.S. population (not found in current reporting).