From the Food Research and Action Center (http://www.frac.org):
Despite omitting discussion of any impact on free school meals in the analysis of its proposed rule to change a SNAP state option that would eliminate SNAP benefits for 3.1 million people, USDA reportedly admitted in a briefing for congressional staff that 500,000 children would lose their automatic eligibility for free school meals, according to House Education and Labor Committee Chairman Bobby Scott (D-VA). Children in households that participate in SNAP are directly certified for free school meals. Given that linkage, when the House version of the 2018 Farm Bill proposed weakening the SNAP Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility (Cat El) option, the Congressional Budget Office estimated not only how many households would lose SNAP benefits, but also how many children would lose school meals. See CBO Cost Estimate for H.R. 2, May 2, 2018, at page 13. Chairman Scott has called on Secretary Perdue to explain and correct the omission.
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