Sponsors (4)
The bill increases SNAP benefit adequacy and responsiveness—helping families, seniors, people with disabilities, and renters—while raising program costs and creating administrative and implementation burdens that could shift budget priorities and produce short-term disruption for states and some recipients.
Low-income households — especially families — will get SNAP allotments recalculated using a new low-cost food plan and an annual Oct 1 indexing to recent food costs, increasing benefit adequacy and keeping benefits more responsive to inflation and local price changes.
Low-income households and state relief programs will receive a one-time $35 million increase in commodity assistance in FY2025, providing additional food resources for emergency and program distribution.
Elderly and disabled households and those with medical costs can claim a larger standard medical deduction ($140 in FY2025, indexed thereafter) and may use either that standard deduction or actual allowable medical expenses; states can also opt for larger standard deductions under Secretary-set cost-neutrality rules — increasing benefits for seniors, people with disabilities, and medically-burden‑
Taxpayers and the federal budget are likely to face higher SNAP program costs — driven by a higher minimum allotment floor, increased medical deductions, removal of the shelter cap, and elimination of a time limit — which will increase federal spending or require offsets in other programs.
State and local agencies will face increased administrative complexity, system changes, and unpredictability (recalculating allotments, QC payment formula tied to the new benchmark, renumbered/deleted provisions), raising implementation costs and risk of short-term disruptions.
Access improvements may be uneven because states can adopt larger standard medical deductions only if they meet Secretary-set 'cost‑neutrality' rules, potentially delaying or limiting relief in high-cost states.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Replaces the thrifty food plan with a new low‑cost food plan to raise and annually index SNAP allotments, increases deductions for medical and shelter costs, and removes a SNAP time‑limit category.
Official title: Amend the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to require that supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits be calculated using the value of the low-cost food plan, and for other purposes.
Introduced September 11, 2025 by Kirsten Gillibrand · Last progress September 11, 2025
Replaces the SNAP 'thrifty food plan' with a newly defined 'low-cost food plan' to calculate uniform SNAP allotments, raises the minimum benefit floor, indexes allotments annually starting October 1, 2025, and provides a one-time $35 million commodity increase for FY2025. It also changes SNAP deductions and eligibility mechanics by creating a statutory standard medical deduction (with a $140 baseline for FY2025 and CPI‑Medical indexing), removing the statutory cap on excess shelter expenses, and deleting a time‑limit subsection that narrowed eligibility categories.