Sponsors (6)
The bill expands SNAP access for people with past drug convictions and those nearing release—improving food security and reentry outcomes—while reducing state discretion and increasing program costs and administrative burdens.
Low-income people with past controlled-substance convictions (including formerly incarcerated individuals) will regain SNAP eligibility, increasing food security and reducing immediate hunger for affected households.
People scheduled for release from incarceration within 30 days will be counted in household SNAP eligibility, enabling immediate access to benefits upon reentry and smoothing the transition back to the community.
Aligning PRWORA definitions with Social Security Act terminology will standardize TANF administration across states, reducing confusion for beneficiaries and state agencies and improving consistency of program implementation.
Taxpayers and federal/state budgets may face higher costs as SNAP eligibility expands to include people with past convictions, potentially diverting funds from other programs or requiring increased appropriations.
States will have reduced flexibility to impose drug-conviction-based restrictions on welfare eligibility, limiting state discretion to design targeted welfare policies.
Including people scheduled for release within 30 days in household counts could increase administrative complexity for state and local SNAP agencies, making verification and enrollment more burdensome.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Introduced September 9, 2025 by Stephen Cohen · Last progress September 9, 2025
Designates an official short title for the Act and removes federal and state-level criminal-conviction-based restrictions on eligibility for certain means-tested benefit programs. The bill expressly invalidates any state law or policy that conditions SNAP eligibility on a controlled-substance conviction and expands the SNAP household definition to include individuals incarcerated but scheduled for release within 30 days. The measure also revises statutory language governing eligibility rules for State programs funded under part A of title IV of the Social Security Act, changing subsection structure and the definition of “State” in the cited federal text. No new funding or emergency spending is specified in the text provided.