Denver — Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet joined U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) to introduce a bipartisan bill to support active duty military families experiencing food insecurity.
The Military Family Nutrition Access Act would address this critical issue by excluding Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH)—a subset of military compensation intended to cover the costs of off-base housing—from income calculations used to determine Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) eligibility. This would ensure SNAP mirrors other federal assistance programs that already exclude BAH to determine eligibility, such as Head Start, the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit.
“Our military families make great sacrifices to protect our country and keep us safe, and they should never have to worry about being able to put food on the table,” said Bennet. “This bill would cut red tape to help our military families access critical nutrition programs and bring us closer to ending hunger in our military altogether.”
“Far too many of our military families are going hungry because of unintended barriers that make them unable to access essential nutrition assistance programs that they should be eligible for,” said Duckworth. “As someone whose family relied on these nutrition programs after my father lost his job, and who served in the uniform for most of my adult life, I’m proud to be reintroducing this bipartisan legislation with Senator Murkowski that builds on the progress we made in the last two defense bills so we can help make sure our servicemembers and their families have enough to eat.”
“Our military members and their families have enough to focus on as they serve and defend our nation—they shouldn’t have the additional anxiety about how they’re going to put food on the table,” said Murkowski. “That’s why I am joining Senator Duckworth in leading this bipartisan measure to address food insecurity which is impacting the military community. By removing barriers to assistance and improving the ability for service members to afford food, we’re supporting our military families and preventing hunger—all of which strengthens our nation’s defense efforts.”
In addition to Bennet, Duckworth and Murkowski, this legislation is co-sponsored by U.S. Senators Angus King (I-Maine), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.).
This legislation is endorsed by a number of advocacy organizations, including: The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), National Military Family Association, Military Officers Association of America, MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, Alliance to End Hunger, MomsRising, Share Our Strength, VoteVets, Bread for the World, Food Research & Action Center (FRAC), Military Family Advisory Network and Feeding America.
A summary of the bill is available HERE.