Senior Hunger Prevention Act of 2026

Key Points

• The bill creates a standard medical expense deduction of $155 per month for elderly and disabled SNAP households, replacing the current system that requires tracking every medical receipt. This amount would be adjusted each year for medical inflation, and states could set a higher deduction if it meets cost-neutrality rules.
• Seniors and people with disabilities would stay enrolled in SNAP for 36 months instead of 24, and a new Elderly Simplified Application Program would eliminate required interviews at recertification and use government data matching instead of requiring households to verify income themselves.
• A new $500 million annual fund would reimburse stores up to $10 per delivery for bringing groceries to seniors and adults with disabilities who cannot shop on their own or lack safe transportation. Stores receiving reimbursement cannot charge participants for delivery, impose minimum purchase amounts, or use surge pricing.
• The Seniors Farmers' Market Nutrition Program would expand to include adults with disabilities, set individual benefits between $35 and $80, extend the certification period to 36 months, and authorize up to $100 million a year by fiscal year 2029. Grants of up to $350,000 would help states modernize from paper coupons to electronic systems.
• A $12.25 million pilot program would fund outreach grants of $50,000 to $250,000 each to help older adults, kinship families (like grandparents raising grandchildren), and adults with disabilities learn about and enroll in SNAP. Priority goes to groups serving communities with high food insecurity, rural areas, communities of color, LGBTQ individuals, veterans, and people with limited English.
• The bill increases the minimum SNAP benefit from 8% of the maximum allotment to one-third, a significant boost for the smallest benefit amounts that many elderly households currently receive.

Votes

No votes have been recorded for this legislation yet.