College students get automatic alerts about food assistance they qualify for
H.R. 777 — Closing the College Hunger Gap Act · Filed by Jahana Hayes (D-CT) · 37 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 28, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill requires the Department of Education to automatically send information about SNAP (food assistance) eligibility and application instructions to college students who file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and have a negative or zero Expected Family Contribution. The bill aims to connect low-income students to nutrition assistance they may qualify for but don't know about.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is a requirement that the Department of Education share information about an existing federal benefit (SNAP) with eligible students. It is a transparency and access measure, not a regulatory change, appropriation, or subsidy.
What the text implies
- Requires interagency coordination between Education and Agriculture departments, which may reveal administrative gaps in how federal benefits are currently communicated to eligible populations.
- May increase SNAP enrollment and associated federal spending if students who were previously unaware of eligibility now apply — this is a feature, not a bug, but represents a fiscal consequence.
- Creates a touchpoint in the FAFSA process that could be expanded in future legislation to include other means-tested benefits (housing, healthcare, etc.).
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Low-income college students gain access to information about food assistance they are already eligible for but may not know exists. The bill creates no new barriers, costs, or restrictions on students — it only increases awareness of an existing federal benefit. Students who are food-insecure benefit from easier access to SNAP.
Named in the bill
Department of Education, Department of Agriculture, SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), Higher Education Act of 1965, Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, State agencies administering SNAP
Where it stands
37 cosponsors: 37 Democrats.
- Jan 28, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jan 28, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Education and Workforce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce”
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 $1,795,904 in lobbying spend. A filing names 50 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.
Jahana Hayes, the sponsor, reported $630,811 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- American Academy of Family Physicians — $1,715,904 on 2 filings
- Rutgers the State University of New Jersey — $80,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 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 (1,581 characters) on Jul 24, 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 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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