Sponsors (9)
The bill restores SNAP access and eases reentry for people with past drug convictions—reducing food insecurity and simplifying SNAP rules—while leaving states able to restrict TANF and creating modest fiscal and political costs from expanded eligibility.
Low-income individuals with past felony drug convictions will no longer be broadly barred from SNAP, restoring access to food assistance for people previously excluded solely due to a conviction.
People who are incarcerated but scheduled for release within 30 days will be counted in their household for SNAP, improving continuity of food assistance at reentry and reducing immediate food insecurity for returning citizens and their families.
State and local SNAP administration will be simplified because benefit denials based on drug convictions are limited to TANF programs, reducing inconsistent state-level exclusions and easing SNAP agency implementation.
Individuals may still lose TANF benefits because states retain authority to restrict TANF under §862a, so restoring SNAP eligibility does not fully prevent loss of other critical assistance.
Restoring SNAP eligibility to people previously excluded will likely increase program caseloads and federal/state administrative workload, raising costs for taxpayers and state governments to process higher participation and provide reentry outreach.
States that previously used convictions-based SNAP restrictions lose a policy tool they may have viewed as deterring drug offenses, which could prompt political pushback and implementation costs to revise state policy.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Removes SNAP from the federal felony-drug conviction ban, limits the bar to TANF, and counts people within 30 days of release as part of a SNAP household.
Official title: To amend the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 to allow individuals with drug offenses to receive benefits under the supplemental nutrition assistance program, and for other purposes.
Introduced September 9, 2025 by Stephen Cohen · Last progress September 9, 2025
This bill removes a federal ban that treated SNAP (food stamps) eligibility the same as TANF for certain felony drug convictions, so people with those convictions cannot be categorically denied SNAP by federal law. It also clarifies that people who are incarcerated but scheduled for release within 30 days count as part of a SNAP household for purposes of eligibility. The measure preempts any state law or policy that conditions SNAP eligibility on a controlled-substance conviction and narrows the felony-conviction bar to apply only to TANF (part A of title IV of the Social Security Act).