No Welfare for the Wealthy Act of 2025

No Welfare for the Wealthy Act of 2025

This bill requires all households participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to meet the program's income and asset requirements, thereby eliminating certain alternative SNAP eligibility pathways.

Currently, a household may be eligible for SNAP by meeting program-specific federal eligibility requirements, which include both income and asset tests. A household may also be automatically or categorically eligible for SNAP based on eligibility for or receiving cash benefits from other specified low-income assistance programs (e.g., Temporary Assistance for Needy Families [TANF]). Under this categorical eligibility, households that already meet financial eligibility rules in a program like TANF are not required to go through a SNAP financial eligibility determination. 

A majority of states also provide broad-based categorical eligibility (BBCE), a policy that makes most households with an income below a certain threshold categorically eligible for SNAP. Under BBCE, these states typically make households categorically eligible through receiving or being authorized to receive a minimal non-cash TANF benefit or service (e.g., a pamphlet). A state may set its own BBCE financial eligibility requirements for a household so long as the gross income requirement is below a certain level. A state's requirements do not have to match SNAP program-specific eligibility requirements. For example, most states that provide BBCE do not have an asset test for SNAP eligibility.

The bill requires all SNAP households, including those that qualify under categorical eligibility, to meet the program's income and asset requirements.

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 416 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 416

   To amend the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to close the nominal 
                           benefits loophole.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 15, 2025

   Mr. Cline (for himself, Mr. Higgins of Louisiana, Mr. Ellzey, Mr. 
 Brecheen, and Mr. Green of Tennessee) introduced the following bill; 
           which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To amend the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to close the nominal 
                           benefits loophole.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``No Welfare for the Wealthy Act of 
2025''.

SEC. 2. AMENDMENT.

    Section 5(a) of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 
2014(a)) is amended to read as follows:
``No household shall be eligible to receive benefits pursuant to this 
section if it does not meet the income and resource criteria under 
subsections (c) and (g).''.

SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE; APPLICATION OF AMENDMENT.

    (a)  Effective Date.--Except as provided in subsection (b), this 
Act and the amendment made by this Act shall take effect 1 year after 
the date of the enactment of this Act.
    (b) Application of Amendment.--The amendment made by this Act shall 
not apply with respect to certification periods that begin before the 
effective date of this Act.
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