Congress removes food-stamp ban for people with drug convictions
H.R. 5223 — RESTORE Act of 2025 · Filed by Steve Cohen (D-TN) · 12 cosponsors · Introduced Sep 9, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill removes the federal ban on SNAP (food stamps) benefits for people with drug-related convictions. Currently, federal law allows states to permanently bar such individuals from receiving food assistance; this bill strikes that ban and voids any state law that imposes drug-conviction-based eligibility restrictions. It also expands the SNAP household definition to include people scheduled for release from incarceration within 30 days, allowing them to apply before release.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is restoring food-assistance eligibility to a population excluded by prior drug-conviction bans. It is a targeted reentry and anti-poverty measure, not a broad welfare expansion or fiscal instrument.
What the text implies
- Removes a federal incentive for states to maintain drug-conviction bars; states that have adopted such bars may face pressure to align with federal policy or face administrative friction.
- The 30-day pre-release household inclusion may create administrative burden for correctional facilities and SNAP agencies to coordinate release schedules and benefit applications.
- Restores eligibility retroactively for individuals currently barred; implementation may require state agencies to identify and re-enroll affected individuals, with potential delays if systems are not updated.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Individuals with drug convictions—disproportionately low-income and formerly incarcerated—gain access to food assistance, reducing food insecurity and supporting reentry. The bill expands a basic safety-net benefit to a population currently excluded, with no offsetting cost to other beneficiaries or the program's fiscal structure.
Named in the bill
SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, Social Security Act (Title IV, Part A), State governments, Individuals with drug convictions
Where it stands
12 cosponsors: 9 Democrats, 3 Republicans.
- Sep 9, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Sep 9, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Ways and Means and House Committee on Agriculture · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Agriculture, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 3 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $56,610 in lobbying spend. A filing names 8 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Steve Cohen, the sponsor, reported $315,000 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Prison Fellowship Ministries — $30,000 on 1 filing
- Drug Policy Alliance — $26,610 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 17, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,868 characters) on Aug 20, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 17, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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