Biden's USDA drops Trump administration plan to tighten work requirements for working-age adults without children

"A Trump-era plan to cut food stamps is now off the table after the Biden administration said it is abandoning a previous plan to tighten work requirements for working-age adults without children. Those restrictions were projected to deny federal food assistance benefits to 700,000 adults, a proposal that had had drawn strong condemnation from anti-hunger advocates," Aimee Picchi reports for CBS News. "The U.S. Department of Agriculture on March 24 said it is withdrawing a Trump administration appeal of a federal court ruling that had blocked the planned restrictions on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps. Trump officials had filed the appeal in May, two months after the coronavirus pandemic had shuttered the economy and caused millions of people to lose their jobs."

USDA also confirmed it will extend the 15 percent increase in SNAP benefits through September with funds from the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief-and-stimulus bill. Without the funds, the extension would have ended in June. The bump will add up to about $3.5 billion of assistance to an estimated 41 million food-insecure Americans. That means $28 more per person, per month, or more than $100 more per month for a household of four.