Alma Adams wants to expand the welfare state with the "Closing the Meal Gap Act of 2025"

The "Closing the Meal Gap Act of 2025" is fiscally irresponsible and undermines the core purpose of the SNAP program.

This legislation is fundamentally flawed for several key reasons:

1. Massive, Unconstrained Federal Spending Without Offsets:
The bill's core provision—switching the SNAP benefit calculation from the "Thrifty Food Plan" to the more expensive "Low-Cost Food Plan"—constitutes a massive, permanent entitlement expansion. The Thrifty Food Plan is the cost-neutral basis designed to provide a nutritionally adequate diet at minimal cost. The Low-Cost Food Plan is, by the USDA's own definitions, significantly more expensive. Mandating this change without any corresponding spending cuts, program reforms, or funding offsets would dramatically increase the national debt and force taxpayers to fund a benefit expansion they cannot afford.

2. Elimination of Crucial Work Requirements for Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWDs):
The bill recklessly eliminates Section 6(o) of the Act, which stipulates a time limit for ABAWDs to receive benefits unless they are working or in a training program. This provision is a vital safeguard to encourage self-sufficiency and ensure that temporary food assistance does not morph into a permanent lifestyle for those who are able to work. Its removal destroys a key incentive for workforce participation and contradicts the program's original intent as a hand-up, not a hand-out.

3. Expansion of Benefits Beyond a "Supplemental" Level:
SNAP is the *Supplemental* Nutrition Assistance Program. It was designed to *supplement* a household's food budget, not cover it entirely. By shifting to the more generous Low-Cost Food Plan and eliminating the cap on shelter expense deductions, the bill transforms SNAP into a de facto universal food income program. This moves the goalposts from preventing hunger to providing a comprehensive grocery subsidy, vastly expanding the program's scope and cost beyond its original purpose.

4. Increased Administrative Burden and Complexity:
The bill introduces new complexities, such as allowing states to set their own, even higher, standard medical deductions. This creates a patchwork of benefit rules across the country, increasing administrative overhead for state agencies and making the program more confusing and less uniform for recipients.

In summary, this bill is a poorly disguised expansion of the welfare state that ignores fiscal responsibility, removes incentives for work, and fundamentally alters the nature of SNAP from a targeted safety net to a broad-based entitlement. It prioritizes increasing benefits over promoting self-reliance, making it bad policy for taxpayers and recipients alike.

Take a look at the text of the bill here: Closing the Meal Gap Act of 2025