Congress Modified Food Assistance – Here’s Why

Thursday, Congress created some of the most significant modifications to the food assistance program to prevent the country from defaulting on its loans.

Congress Modified Food Assistance – Here’s Why (PHOTO: Wisconsin Public Radio)

Food Assistance Modifications

The  Hunger advocates and lawmakers are still brainstorming about what food assistance changes will mean for the nation’s most vulnerable.

Especially when the details of the agreement in the food assistance program should be made public and advocates on both sides say they were blindsided.

NRP reported that the progressiveness in the Biden administration is desired that would fend off any attempts to expand work requirements for food assistance benefits to avail. Republicans were seeking any policy to push even more people off the program and into the workforce.

Furthermore, after weeks of negotiations between the White House and Republican 0fficials agreed on a mixed bag when it came to food assistance.

The longtime program would enact new work requirements for those ages 50 to 54 but would spare people from work requirements if they meet one of the following categories:

• those encountering homelessness of all ages
• veterans of all ages
• ages between 18 to 24 who aged out of foster care

All these modifications are also set to end in 2023.

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In the end, Democrats joined Republicans in both chambers to enact the food assistance bill. But some Democrats, like Pennsylvanian Senator John Fetterman who chairs the subcommittee on nutrition, didn’t back the entire proposal.

Meanwhile, Republican senators made measurements to present amendments that would increase the work requirements proposed or make them permanent made.

After the House passed the measure on Wednesday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy pledged to get “more work requirements.”

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