Restore SNAP Protections for Young Adults and Former Foster Youth

The $187 billion in SNAP cuts passed this year will push nearly 3 million young adults off food assistance — and I want you to fight to reverse them. We found the money to keep defense contractors flush, but we're telling 18-year-olds who aged out of foster care that they're on their own. That's a choice, and it's the wrong one. Former foster youth already face a 25% homelessness rate during the transition to adulthood. Stripping their work requirement exemption doesn't make them more employable — it makes them hungrier and less stable. Young adults in the gig economy can't always guarantee 80 hours a month of qualifying work, and job searching doesn't even count. SNAP averages $6 a day. We're not talking about luxury — we're talking about whether someone eats while they look for work. The Pentagon budget doesn't get this kind of scrutiny. These cuts should. Restore the foster youth exemption, fix the work requirement rules to count job searching, and block the state cost-shifting provision before 2027. The people losing benefits aren't abstractions — they're your constituents, and they're going hungry because Congress prioritized the wrong line items.