House Republicans are proposing to bar most non-citizens from receiving taxpayer-funded benefits, including food stamps, in President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill.”
GOP lawmakers are pursuing an extensive overhaul of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to help offset the cost of the president’s tax priorities. The House Agriculture Committee will include a provision in their draft billto restrict SNAP benefits to those who are citizens or lawful permanent residents following Republican Illinois Rep. Mary Miller’s request to the panel to prohibit certain non-citizens from receiving food stamps.
“Taxpayer-funded benefits like SNAP are intended for Americans in need, not foreigners who break the law to enter this country,” Miller told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “That’s why I fought to include my proposal in the Agriculture Committee’s reconciliation plan, saving taxpayers up to $8 billion over the next decade and reversing Biden’s unlawful handouts given to millions of illegal aliens. I appreciate my colleagues on the committee for working with me to include this critical reform in President Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill.”
House Agriculture Republicans were tasked with cutting at least $230 billion in programs under the committee’s jurisdiction over a ten-year period.
Though federal law prohibits migrants with no legal status from receiving SNAP benefits, certain non-citizen groups including refugees, migrants granted asylum and those who have had their deportations withheld are eligible to enroll in the entitlement program, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which oversees the program.
Roughly 42 million people — more than 12% of the U.S. population —received monthly SNAP benefits in fiscal year 2023, according to USDA data.
Since the 1990s, federal SNAP spending has risen from less than $20 billion to more than $110 billion, according to a fact sheet previously obtained by the DCNF from Republican Oklahoma Rep. Josh Brecheen’s office.
House Republicans on the Energy and Commerce (E&C) committee are also taking aim at illegal migrants in their portion of the president’s tax and spending package. The E&C bill would decrease federal Medicaid payments to blue states, such as New York and California, that provide illegal migrants healthcare coverage.
Under House Republicans’ proposal, states that continue providing non-citizens coverage would see the federal government reduce the share it contributes to Medicaid expansion there from 90% to 80%.
Trump issued an executive order in February barring illegal migrants from accessing taxpayer-funded benefits.
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