Texans receiving federal food assistance caught in crosshairs of congressional funding fight
More than 225,000 Texans could get turned away from the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children next year unless Congress allocates more money for the program, advocates and the White House warns. But partisan divisions are obscuring the path forward on government funding.
Another round: Emergency SNAP benefits extended for January
Governor Greg Abbott announced Thursday that the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) is providing more than $344.1 million in emergency Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food benefits for the month of January. The allotments are expected to help about 1.6 million Texas households.
Texas suing USDA over requirement to add LGBTQ protections to nutrition programsโ nondiscrimination policies
The USDA Food and Nutrition Service announced in May that it would expand its definition of sexual discrimination to include gender identity and sexual orientation. Paxton and other attorneys general are suing in response.
Texas Health and Human Services to provide more than $168M in emergency SNAP food benefits
AUSTIN, Texas โ Texas Health and Human Services will provide more than $168 million in emergency Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program food benefits to help people in the state during the COVID-19 response, Gov. HHS got federal approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide the maximum allowable number of SNAP benefits to recipients based on family size, according to a news release. Anyone receiving SNAP benefits is included. โSNAP, commonly referred to as the food stamp program, supplements the budget of the working poor. "The additional food subsidy announced today by Governor Abbott, although still supplemental, will help fill a portion of the financial gap created by the economic crisis resulting from this pandemic.