Lawmakers: Develop federal support for hungry troops
Home members from each events have signed on to 2 payments filed late final week aimed toward increasing federal support to hungry American troops and their households, and the same push is underway within the Senate.
The legislative strikes come as Pentagon figures present some 286,800 personnel within the active-duty drive, or almost 1 in 4 navy servicemembers, expertise “low meals safety.” Of these, an estimated 120,000 are confronted with “very low meals safety,” that means they periodically eat much less, miss meals or reduce weight, the Protection Division has discovered.
The not too long ago filed payments, each sponsored by Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., would rewrite the principles for federal help to navy personnel.
One Home measure would alter a Pentagon revenue complement known as the essential wants allowance. The opposite Home invoice would change the Agriculture Division’s Supplemental Vitamin Help Program.
In each applications, housing allowances for navy personnel, which might quantity to 1000’s of {dollars} per yr, are counted as revenue. Because of this, some specialists say, 1000’s of troops are unable to qualify for both Pentagon or SNAP support. The newly filed Home payments would exclude housing funds from the revenue calculations.