Sponsors (2)
The bill increases SNAP support for low-income households—including trainees, refugees, and veterans—by excluding certain program payments from income calculations, at the cost of higher program spending and added administrative and implementation challenges that could lead to uneven access across states.
Low-income households (including households with unemployed members and those receiving program payments): income from approved work, training, vocational rehabilitation, and refugee employment programs will be excluded when determining SNAP eligibility and benefit amounts, increasing eligibility and/or benefit levels for affected households.
Participants in workforce, training, and vocational programs: payments from these programs will not count as SNAP income, reducing benefit ‘cliffs’ and making it less risky for beneficiaries to enter job training or employment programs.
Refugees and veterans in specified programs: earnings from refugee employment programs under INA §412(c) and income from specified veterans education/retraining programs (e.g., Post-9/11 GI Bill, Harry W. Colmery Act benefits, COVID–19 VRRAP) will be excluded from SNAP calculations, supporting resettlement, economic integration, and veteran retraining.
Taxpayers: expanding the list of income exclusions for SNAP could increase SNAP outlays and overall program costs if more households qualify or receive higher benefits.
Low-income households and immigrant beneficiaries: ambiguous cross-references and differing state interpretations of which program payments qualify could produce uneven access to the exclusions and unequal treatment across states.
State agencies and USDA: implementing the new exclusions and renumbered subsections will require system updates, new guidance, and training, imposing administrative costs and possible short-term delays in eligibility processing.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Excludes income from certain employment, training, vocational rehab, and refugee employment programs from SNAP income calculations, with limited veteran-program exceptions.
Introduced May 15, 2025 by Kirsten Gillibrand · Last progress May 15, 2025
Excludes income, payments, allowances, or earnings received from certain employment, training, vocational rehabilitation, and refugee employment programs from being counted as income for SNAP eligibility and benefit calculations. It also makes minor technical edits to renumber existing subsections and update a cross-reference in SNAP law. The change means people in qualifying training and employment programs generally will not have those program payments counted against them for SNAP, which can increase eligibility or benefit levels; a few veteran programs are explicitly excluded from the exclusion and remain countable.