Trump administration rule change would knock 3.1 million off food stamps

Food stamps.
(Image credit: Tim Boyle/Getty Images)

The Trump administration on Tuesday will propose a rule change that could cut about 3.1 million people from the food-stamp program, CNBC reports. U.S. Department of Agriculture officials said the proposal seeks to require people who receive benefits from another federal program known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) to pass an income and asset review to determine whether they also qualify for food stamps through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Currently, 43 states automatically consider TANF beneficiaries eligible for food stamps. The change would save the government about $2.5 billion a year. "Some states are taking advantage of loopholes that allow people to receive the SNAP benefits who would otherwise not qualify and for which they are not entitled," USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue said Monday.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.