Budget Reconciliation Bill Provides Much-Needed Support & Investment for Programs like SNAP, WIC, & P-EBT
This week, Members of Congress released legislation for the budget reconciliation bill, which would provide much-needed support for federal nutrition assistance programs. This follows President Biden’s recent executive actions to boost safety net programs as part of his COVID-19 Recovery Plan. In response to these developments, Abby J. Leibman, MAZON’s President & CEO, said:
“The federal government’s boosts to nutrition assistance programs during the pandemic are crucial to helping the most vulnerable among us from going hungry. We are pleased to see this signal of support for safety net programs like SNAP, WIC, and P-EBT, and we hope Congress will extend benefit boosts for as long as needed until our nation can fully recover from this crisis. The Administration and Congress must continue prioritizing food access and build on measures put into place to keep all Americans healthy, safe, and well-nourished. As long as people are struggling, hunger must remain a top-priority issue.”
MAZON supports the recent bills from the House Committees on Agriculture and Education and Labor, which include provisions to:
- extend the 15% benefit boosts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps) for an additional 3 months, through September 2021;
- invest an additional $25 million to expand SNAP online purchasing options;
- provide $1 billion in nutrition aid to Americans in Puerto Rico and other territories;
- boost benefits for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) up to $35 per month for a four-month period during the pandemic; and
- extend the Pandemic-EBT (P-EBT) program to help families whose children would be receiving free or reduced-price meals in schools, if not for pandemic-related school closures.