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To amend the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to permit supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits to be used to purchase additional types of food items.
Summary
This bill amends the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to allow SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits to be used to purchase hot foods and hot food products ready for immediate consumption. Currently, SNAP benefits generally cannot be used for hot or prepared foods, with only limited exceptions. The bill removes this broad restriction and permits hot foods to be purchased with SNAP benefits. It includes a provision that retailers can derive up to 50 percent of their total gross sales from hot foods and still accept SNAP benefits as payment. This expands the types of food items that SNAP recipients are able to purchase with their benefits.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
12 cosponsors
- Sen. Blumenthal, Richard [D-CT] (D-CT)
- Sen. Blunt Rochester, Lisa [D-DE] (D-DE)
- Sen. Coons, Christopher A. [D-DE] (D-DE)
- Sen. Fetterman, John [D-PA] (D-PA)
- Sen. Gillibrand, Kirsten E. [D-NY] (D-NY)
- Sen. Hickenlooper, John W. [D-CO] (D-CO)
- Sen. Markey, Edward J. [D-MA] (D-MA)
- Sen. Padilla, Alex [D-CA] (D-CA)
- Sen. Sanders, Bernard [I-VT] (I-VT)
- Sen. Slotkin, Elissa [D-MI] (D-MI)
- Sen. Van Hollen, Chris [D-MD] (D-MD)
- Sen. Welch, Peter [D-VT] (D-VT)
Actions (2)
- Mar 31, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. · senate
- Mar 31, 2025 Introduced in Senate
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
March 31, 2025
Mr. Bennet (for himself, Mr. Padilla, Mr. Hickenlooper, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Welch, Mrs. Gillibrand, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Fetterman, Mr. Blumenthal, and Mr. Markey) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
A BILL
To amend the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to permit supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits to be used to purchase additional types of food items.
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 “Hot Foods Act of 2025”.
SEC. 2. HOT FOOD UNDER SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM.
Section 3 of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2012) is amended—
(1) in subsection (k)(1), by striking “consumption except alcoholic beverages, tobacco, hot foods or hot food products ready for immediate consumption other than those authorized pursuant to clauses (3), (4), (5), (7), (8), and (9) of this subsection” and inserting “consumption, including hot foods or hot food products ready for immediate consumption and excluding alcoholic beverages, tobacco”;
(2) in subsection (o)(1)—
(A) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by striking “and consumption” and inserting “or home or immediate consumption”; and
(B) in subparagraph (A)—
(i) by striking the subparagraph designation and all that follows through “offers” and inserting the following:
“(A)(i) offers”;
(ii) in clause (i) (as so designated), by striking “or” at the end and inserting “and”; and
(iii) by adding at the end the following:
“(ii) of which not more than 50 percent of the total gross sales are from hot foods or hot food products ready for immediate consumption; or”; and
(3) in subsection (q)(2)—
(A) by striking “include accessory” and inserting the following: “include—
“(A) accessory”;
(B) in subparagraph (A) (as so designated), by striking the period at the end and inserting “; and”; and
(C) by adding at the end the following:
“(B) hot foods or hot food products ready for immediate consumption.”. <all>
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