A bill that is waiting to be signed into law would change some of the qualifications for Iowans to receive food assistance.

District 24 Senator Jesse Green (R-Boone) says the main changes they made for individuals to qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is codifying one of the criteria of being at or below 160-percent of the federal poverty level and who has $15,000 in liquid assets can qualify. He points out Iowans who are on a fixed income because of retirement and/or using Social Security are exempt from these qualification changes.

Green talks about some individuals who previously qualified for food assistance may not once this bill is signed into law, because of the federal government issuing a fine on the state in 2018 for fraudulent folks being on SNAP.

“I think there’s definitely going to be some people that are kicked off of SNAP but remember we are over the acceptable level of that the federal government has established for this program, as far as that fraud rate. So we want to be within that safe range of what’s acceptable in the federal government’s eyes. I don’t predict there’s going to be a lot of people kicked off, but the ones that should be kicked off the program, will be.”

Food Bank of Iowa CEO and Jefferson native Michelle Book tells Raccoon Valley Radio the need for food assistance has grown greatly over the past year, with about 11-percent of Iowans living in poverty.

“Those folks that live in poverty that’s very closely tied to food insecurity. And I think what’s very interesting about that, 1 in 7 working Iowa households, these are households where people have one, or two, or maybe three jobs amongst the head of household, they’re working, they have a paycheck, but they’re not able to bring home enough money to cover the cost of basic needs.”  

The bill was passed by both the Iowa House and Senate and is waiting for Governor Kim Reynolds to sign the changes into law.