Tag Archives: food stamps

Politico reports: House Republicans are preparing one of the largest overhauls to the country’s largest anti-hunger programs in decades, with a plan to limit future increases to benefits, implement new work requirements and push costs to states in a move that risks millions of low-income Americans being removed from the program. The Agriculture bill has faced delays since last recess …

The Washington Post reports: President-elect Donald Trump’s economic advisers and congressional Republicans have begun preliminary discussions about making significant changes to Medicaid, food stamps and other federal safety net programs. One GOP tax adviser said lawmakers were looking at broadening work requirements for SNAP eligibility, something the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 playbook recommends. The last time Republicans controlled both …

Politico reports: Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), is introducing a bill Tuesday, shared exclusively with POLITICO, to expand current restrictions on who qualifies for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps. It’s the first of what is expected to be a wave of GOP efforts this year to set limits on SNAP, the country’s largest food assistance program, …

Axios reports: Iowa House Republicans are proposing restrictions on the state’s SNAP benefits that could dramatically limit what foods recipients can get at the store. The new bill introduces cumbersome rules that dictate what families can or can’t buy at the grocery stores, said Luke Elzinga, spokesperson for DMARC, a local food nonprofit. Proposed restrictions: No white grains — people …

CBS News reports: A Trump-era plan to cut food stamps is now off the table after the Biden administration said it is abandoning a previous plan to tighten work requirements for working-age adults without children. Those restrictions were projected to deny federal food assistance benefits to 700,000 adults, a proposal that had had drawn strong condemnation from anti-hunger advocates. USDA …

The Washington Post reports: A federal judge on Sunday formally struck down a Trump administration attempt to end food stamp benefits for nearly 700,000 unemployed people, blocking as “arbitrary and capricious” the first of three such planned measures to restrict the federal food safety net. In a scathing 67-page opinion, Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell of D.C. condemned …

The Associated Press reports: The Agriculture Department said Wednesday that it would appeal a judge’s ruling that it would be “arbitrary and capricious” to move forward during a global health crisis with food stamp changes that could force hundreds of thousands from the program. Federal Judge Beryl Howell, in a ruling late last week, stopped a set of changes that …

The New York Times reports: President Trump released a $4.8 trillion budget proposal on Monday that includes a familiar list of deep cuts to student loan assistance, affordable housing efforts, food stamps and Medicaid, reflecting Mr. Trump’s election-year effort to continue shrinking the federal safety net. The proposal, which must be approved by Congress, includes additional spending for the military, …

Politico reports: A coalition that includes attorneys general in 14 states, the District of Columbia and New York City are suing the Agriculture Department over a plan to impose stricter work requirements on millions of food stamp recipients. The lawsuit, filed Thursday by mostly Democratic-led states, argues that USDA unlawfully limited states’ discretion to exempt certain adults from work requirements …

“I think that President Trump and his administration are doing an incredible job making America great again. This is fantastic news, that they are now acknowledging those that are sitting on their couch, they’ve gotten very comfortable on the couch, to say our national food stamp program is for those that are in need, desperate need. “They fixed the economy, …

Bloomberg News reports: The Trump administration will announce a plan Wednesday to end food stamps benefits for about 750,000 Americans, issuing a new regulation that makes it harder for states to gain waivers from a requirement that beneficiaries work or participate in a vocational training program, according to people familiar with the matter. Conservatives have long sought cuts in the …

Reuters reports: The Trump administration on Tuesday will propose a rule to tighten food stamp restrictions that would cut about 3.1 million people from the program, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials said. Currently, 43 U.S. states allow residents to automatically become eligible for food stamps through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, if they receive benefits from …

It’s Reagan and ketchup all over again. Bloomberg reports: Canned spray cheese, beef jerky, and pimiento-stuffed olives would count as staple foods under the Trump administration’s proposed rule for the federal food-stamp program. The rule reportedly revises the program’s “minimum stocking requirements” for food staples, which stores are required to meet in order to accept the food-stamp benefits. The Federal …

CBS News reports: The partial government shutdown glided into its third week Saturday with no end in sight. If the government is not reopened before February, millions of Americans who receive benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — the nation’s food stamp program — could have their assistance disrupted. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees SNAP at …

“Prior to President Bush, there were like, food stamps. So they had this stigma about them, so people wouldn’t want to be on even if they qualify. But now it’s like an EBT swipe card, it’s a debit card. So they take the shame out of it. What the Trump Administration is saying is, come on guys, the economy’s doing good. …

The Associated Press reports: The Trump administration is setting out to do what this year’s farm bill didn’t: tighten work requirements for millions of Americans who receive federal food assistance. The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday is proposing a rule that would restrict the ability of states to exempt work-eligible adults from having to obtain steady employment to receive …

The Associated Press reports: The Trump administration is considering a plan that would allow states to require certain food stamp recipients to undergo drug testing, handing a win to conservatives who’ve long sought ways to curb the safety net program. The proposal under review would be narrowly targeted, applying mostly to people who are able-bodied, without dependents and applying for …

Politico reports: The Trump administration is proposing to save billions in the coming years by giving low-income families a box of government-picked, nonperishable foods every month instead of food stamps. White House OMB Director Mick Mulvaney on Monday hailed the idea as one that kept up with the modern era, calling it a “Blue Apron-type program” — a nod to …

The Hill reports: President Trump will propose massive cuts to the Medicaid program for fiscal 2018, according to a budget document posted by the Department of Health and Human Services. In total, the budget proposes cutting Medicaid spending by $610 billion over 10 years. That’s on top of more than $800 billion in cuts called for under the House-passed ObamaCare …

The Washington Post reports: One lawmaker is citing a godly reference to justify changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Tex.) quoted the New Testament to question the strength of current work requirements. The biblical passage, 2 Thessalonians 3-10, was a rebuttal to one of the hearing’s expert witnesses, a representative of the Jewish anti-hunger group MAZON. …