Service members' kids get help paying for school meals
S. 5495 — Military Dependents School Meal Eligibility Act of 2026 · Filed by Andy Kim (D-NJ) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Sep 24, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
The bill changes how the government counts money for service members' kids. Do not count housing pay when deciding if kids get free meals. The bill tells the Department of Agriculture to study a faster way. Kids could sign up for meals using facts the military already has.
Who it affects
Service members' kids in school would get more help paying for meals. School districts would get more federal money to pay for free meals.
One thing to notice
The bill does not say if this rule applies to other help programs. Food stamps and health care might count housing pay in a different way.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Sep 24, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 24, 2026 — 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.
Words to know
- housing pay — Money the military gives to help pay for a place to live.
- federal money — Money that comes from the U.S. government, not from states or towns.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,418 characters) on Sep 30, 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.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Service members' kids get help paying for school meals” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5495/simple Report an error
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