Sponsors (3)
The bill reduces child hunger and helps families by expanding Summer EBT and funding startup costs, but it increases federal spending and creates short-term implementation burdens and longer-term state cost responsibilities.
Low-income children (including those who normally receive free school meals) will receive daily Summer EBT benefits during summer and qualifying school-closure periods equal to free-rate breakfast, lunch, and a snack, reducing food insecurity and hunger over long school breaks.
Families with school-aged children, especially low-income households, will get food support during unexpected multi-day school closures (5+ weekdays), easing household budgets and reducing emergency meal costs and stress.
States and Tribal organizations receive full federal reimbursement for administrative costs in the initial year (100% in FY2026) with a phased reduction to 50% thereafter, lowering state startup costs and encouraging program uptake in early years.
Expanding benefit levels and eligibility increases federal program costs, adding to budgetary pressures and creating a need for appropriations or offsets paid by taxpayers or other budget priorities.
States may face short-term operational challenges and administrative burdens to expand systems and processes (enrollment, outreach, IT changes), which could disrupt benefit delivery during rollout despite grants.
After FY2031, federal administrative reimbursement drops to 50%, which will raise long-term state and Tribal costs to maintain the expanded program and could strain state budgets.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Expands Summer EBT to school closures, raises per-child benefit to at least free-rate breakfast+lunch+snack from 2025, phases admin reimbursement (100%→50%), and authorizes $50M for state data systems.
Introduced May 6, 2025 by Mike Levin · Last progress May 6, 2025
Expands the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer (Summer EBT) program to provide benefits during school closure periods as well as during summer months, raises the per-child benefit to at least the free-rate value of breakfast, lunch, and a snack per eligible child per day beginning calendar year 2025, and changes the federal administrative reimbursement to a phased schedule that starts at 100% in FY2026 and phases down to 50% in FY2031 and after. It also adds definitions for key terms, makes conforming edits, and directs a one-time $50,000,000 transfer from the Treasury to USDA on October 1, 2025 to support state data systems for program implementation.