Sponsors (4)
This is not an official government website.
Copyright © 2026 PLEJ LC. All rights reserved.
Introduced September 11, 2025 by Kirsten Gillibrand · Last progress September 11, 2025
Replaces the current “thrifty food plan” with a newly defined “low-cost food plan” as the basis for calculating SNAP (food stamp) monthly allotments, sets a schedule for cost updates and periodic reevaluation, and adjusts related SNAP quality-control and commodity funding language. The bill also changes deduction rules used to set SNAP benefits by creating a standardized medical deduction (with an initial $140 amount for FY2025, indexed thereafter) and eliminates the statutory cap on excess shelter expenses, while making numerous technical cross‑reference and numbering edits across nutrition, tax, and workforce statutes.
The bill aims to modernize and better target SNAP benefits and emergency food support—making benefit levels more current and flexible for those with high medical or housing costs—but risks lowering benefits for some households, increases administrative complexity and potential fiscal impacts, and could create transitional coverage or tax‑coordination uncertainties.
Low-income households (SNAP participants nationwide, including families and single-adult households) will receive SNAP allotments that are recalculated using a newly defined low-cost food plan, updated annually using June market prices beginning Oct 1, 2025, and adjusted for household-size economies and higher local prices in Alaska/Hawaii, making benefit levels more timely and better matched to真实
Households with elderly members, people with disabilities, and those facing high housing costs will see improved benefit calculations: eligible elderly/disabled households get a $140 standard medical deduction (FY2025, inflation‑adjusted thereafter) and the removal of the cap on excess shelter expenses lets high housing costs be better reflected in eligibility/benefit calculations; states may opt-
Low-income individuals served by emergency food providers will benefit from increased commodity support because FY2025 TEFAP funding is boosted by $35 million, expanding food aid available to food banks and pantries.
Many SNAP households (broadly low-income individuals and families) could receive smaller monthly allotments if the new low-cost food plan is set lower than the prior thrifty standard, combined with rounding to the nearest dollar, use of a single 4-person reference household, and an increase in the specified deduction from 8% to 10%.
Federal taxpayers, state governments, and program administrators may face higher ongoing program costs and increased administrative workload—transition and implementation (annual updates, new calculations, cost‑neutrality tests for state options) could raise USDA and state/local administrative burdens and temporarily divert resources.
People with medically required special diets (including some seniors and people with disabilities) may not have those diet-specific food costs covered because the standardized medical deduction excludes special-diet costs.