Senate Republicans plan to scale back cuts to federal food aid for the poor that their counterparts in the House used to help pay for Donald Trump’s massive tax and spending package, a key senator said Wednesday.
The Senate version of the tax legislation would exempt states that keep their food stamp payment error rates low from a new cost-shifting provision House Republican imposed requiring state governments to cover as much as a quarter of the cost of federal food stamps received by their residents, Senate Agriculture Chairman John Boozman said.
Boozman, whose committee has jurisdiction over portions of the legislation covering federal food aid and farm subsidies, said the Senate version also would exempt parents of children younger than 10 years old from work requirements for food assistance. The House version of the tax bill imposes work requirements on parents once their children turn 7 years old.
The House version of the legislation would require states to pay between 5% and 25% of the cost of benefits their residents receive through federal food stamps, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SN. States with lower payment error rates would pay a smaller share of food stamp costs.
The new requirements for SN will be delayed to 2028 to give states time to adjust, Boozman said.
The Senate version would exempt states with a payment error rate below 6% from the cost-sharing requirement, Boozman said. Republicans on the Senate Agriculture Committee considered the House version too burdensome on states, the Arkansas senator said.
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