Murkowski, Duckworth Introduce New Bipartisan Bill to Tackle Military Hunger
U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) led 12 of their Senate colleagues today in introducing new, bipartisan legislation to support active duty military families experiencing food insecurity and prevent hunger in these families. The Military Family Nutrition Access Act would address this critical issue by excluding Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH)—a subset of military compensation intended to cover the costs of off-base housing—from income calculations used to determine Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) eligibility.
“Far too many of our military families are going hungry because of unintended barriers that make them unable to access essential nutrition assistance programs that they should be eligible for,” Duckworth said. “As someone whose family relied on these nutrition programs after my father lost his job, and who served in the uniform for most of my adult life, I’m proud to be introducing this bipartisan legislation that builds on the progress we made in last year’s defense bill on helping make sure our servicemembers and their families have enough to eat.”
“Our military families have enough to worry about as they defend our nation and should not have to rely on food banks or food pantries to put food on the table," said Murkowski. "The Military Hunger Prevention Act will support our service members who are struggling with food insecurity by eliminating an unintended barrier to assistance. This addresses the issue of military hunger by providing our service members immediate access to an established program, but is only one step in the process as we generate longer-term solutions."
