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What year did USDA take over administrative responsibility for SNAP and which agency managed it before?
Executive summary
The provided sources consistently state that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) through its Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) [1] [2] [3]. Available sources do not explicitly name the precise year USDA "took over" administrative responsibility from another agency; historical overviews note USDA has administered SNAP (and earlier food‑stamp programs) for decades but do not specify a handover year in the materials provided [4] [1].
1. SNAP today: USDA’s formal role
Current federal descriptions and recent reporting make clear SNAP is administered by USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service: FNS webpages describe SNAP as a USDA program, and GAO and news outlets refer to USDA as the operating agency managing benefits and policy decisions for SNAP [2] [3] [1]. Contemporary reporting about benefit issuance, contingency funds and legal disputes also treats USDA as the responsible agency issuing guidance to states [5] [6] [7].
2. What the provided historical sources say — and what they don’t
A National Academies / NCBI history chapter summarizes the evolution of the food‑stamp/SNAP program and repeatedly frames SNAP as being administered by USDA in cooperation with state agencies, but that chapter in the provided set does not single out a specific year when USDA “took over” from another federal agency [4]. Wikipedia’s SNAP entry likewise identifies USDA/FNS as the current administrator but in the extracts given does not supply an explicit transition year [1]. Therefore, available sources do not mention a discrete takeover year in the materials you provided [4] [1].
3. How modern coverage treats USDA’s authority in practice
Recent coverage of program operations, funding shortfalls and legal orders treats USDA as the decision‑maker — for example, reporting on directives to states about November 2025 issuances, the agency’s contingency‑fund decisions, and legal fights over benefit payments all quote USDA officials or cite USDA memoranda [6] [7] [8]. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) analysis also addresses USDA accounting practices for SNAP obligations, demonstrating USDA’s operational control over benefit accounting and disbursement [3].
4. Why the user’s question about a “takeover year” matters
Asking when USDA “took over” implies there was a clear, single federal‑level administrator prior to USDA. The historical record of U.S. nutrition programs shows program names and federal roles evolved across decades; however, the provided NCBI history and other snippets frame SNAP/food‑stamp programs as USDA‑administered for much of their modern existence without specifying a clean transfer date in these excerpts [4]. Because your sources don’t supply a year, asserting one would exceed what they support [4] [1].
5. Competing perspectives and limits of the sources
Some secondary sources (not included in your set) discuss earlier origins of federal food‑assistance efforts that involved other agencies or wartime programs, and scholars note administrative responsibility shifted over time between agencies and legislation. The current selection — USDA/FNS pages, GAO, and contemporary reporting — consistently treats USDA as the administrator and does not present a competing claim that another agency currently manages SNAP [2] [3] [5]. Because the provided materials lack a detailed administrative timeline, available sources do not mention earlier agency names or the year of any transfer in your dataset [4] [1].
6. How you can confirm the exact year (recommended next steps)
To identify a specific year when administrative responsibility formally changed (if it did), consult primary historical legislation and archival sources: the original Food Stamp Act[9], congressional committee reports, USDA historical timelines, or authoritative histories of federal social programs. Those sources often spell out statutory transfers or reorganizations that a summary extract like the ones supplied here does not (available sources do not mention the exact takeover year) [4] [1].
7. Bottom line for readers
Based on the documents you provided, SNAP is administered by USDA/FNS today and USDA is the actor cited in modern operational disputes and accounting reviews [2] [3] [7]. The provided historical overview materials do not specify a discrete year when USDA assumed administrative responsibility from another agency; therefore, the exact takeover year is not found in current reporting you supplied [4] [1].