The US Senate Agriculture Committee is set to vote on Thursday (August 6) on an agricultural bill amendment concerning whether participants of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) should be allowed to use welfare benefits to purchase rotisserie chickens. This move could break a policy that has prohibited the inclusion of hot prepared foods in the federal nutritional assistance benefits for decades.
According to a report from the US news site “Politico” on Wednesday (August 5), a proposed amendment document obtained indicates that Senator Jim Justice, a Republican from West Virginia, introduced the amendment advocating for the inclusion of hot rotisserie chickens in the list of eligible items for SNAP food vouchers.
Senator Justice’s amendment has garnered support from Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, and Senator Michael Bennet from Colorado. Justice plans to request a separate vote on the amendment during the Senate Agriculture Committee deliberations.
Justice stated, “If we can’t get that done, we’re basically being inhumane. Why would we deprive people of the right to have a hot meal? It’s not about the chicken, it’s about getting people a hot meal.”
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman, Senator John Boozman from Arkansas, had previously mentioned to “Politico” in May that many committee members support this proposal, and he believes that the measure is “likely” to be included in the final version of the agricultural bill.
For decades, the US federal welfare program SNAP has excluded hot prepared foods from the list of items that welfare benefits can be used to purchase, except in cases of natural disasters or when certain states allow exceptions for elderly and disabled individuals to use benefits at restaurants.
In May of this year, the US House of Representatives passed a similar amendment with 384 votes in favor and 35 against, including hot rotisserie chickens in their version of the agricultural bill. Since then, Senator Justice and others have indicated that they will push for similar provisions to be included in the Senate version of the bill.
Several anti-hunger organizations in the US have been urging for relaxed restrictions on SNAP food purchases to allow participants to buy food that better meets their needs. They argue that such hot food provisions should not be limited to just rotisserie chickens but should be expanded to include other hot food items.
Some bipartisan lawmakers and industry experts, however, believe that if the rotisserie chicken amendment is passed, it would bring about structural changes to this welfare assistance program that has long been designed to primarily help with grocery food purchases.