Congress quietly exempts some workers from SNAP income rules—but not veterans.
S. 1789 — Training and Nutrition Stability Act of 2025 · Filed by Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced May 15, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill amends the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to exclude income earned from certain employment and training programs when calculating SNAP (food stamp) eligibility and benefits. Specifically, payments from work programs, employment training, vocational rehabilitation, and refugee employment programs will no longer count as income that reduces SNAP benefits — allowing households participating in these programs to retain more food assistance while they train or work.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a straightforward income exclusion that increases SNAP benefits for households in employment and training programs. It is a targeted expansion of food assistance eligibility, not a restriction or carve-out.
What the text implies
- The exemption applies broadly to work programs EXCEPT those under three named veterans' education acts, creating a carve-out that preserves income-counting for veterans in those specific programs while exempting non-veterans in similar programs.
- By excluding training income from SNAP calculations, the bill may increase federal SNAP spending, as more households will qualify for higher benefit levels during training periods.
- The bill removes subsection (l) of Section 5 entirely (via striking and redesignation), which may contain provisions not visible in this text — the civic effect depends on what subsection (l) currently says.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Low-income households participating in employment and training programs will receive higher SNAP benefits because their training/work income will no longer be counted against them. This reduces the cliff effect that often discourages participation in job training and allows workers to stabilize food security while building skills.
Who stands to gain
- Low-income households participating in employment and training programs
- Workforce development organizations (indirect, via increased participant retention)
Named in the bill
USDA (Food and Nutrition Service), Department of Labor, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Homeland Security (refugee programs), Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Improvements Act of 2010, Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2017, COVID-19 Veterans Rapid Retraining Assistance Program, Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, Immigration and Nationality Act
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 2 Republicans.
- May 15, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- May 15, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. Those filings disclosed $50,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 4 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 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Kirsten Gillibrand, the sponsor, reported $172,178 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Veterans Guardian Va Claim Consulting — $50,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jan 16, 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 (1,591 characters) on Jun 8, 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 Dec 2025. 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 Jan 16, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Congress quietly exempts some workers from SNAP income rules—but not veterans.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s1789 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.