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Restoration of Eligibility for Food Stamps

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On June 23, 1998, the President signed the Agriculture Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act (S. 1150) that includes provisions to restore food stamps to a quarter of a million legal immigrants and refugees, effective November 1,1998.

The provision, which would cost $816 million over five years, would restore food stamps to about 250,000 legal immigrants — children, the elderly and the disabled — who were dropped from the program by the 1996 welfare overhaul law. in 1996. The measure would be paid for in large part through cuts in what the federal government pays states to run the food stamp program.

To qualify for the nutrition benefits, immigrants must have been living in the United States on Aug. 22, 1996, the day the President signed the welfare overhaul law. Those who arrived after that date would not be entitled to food stamps. In addition, elderly individuals must have been 65 or older on that date; disabled individuals qualify regardless of when they become disabled.

The measure would also enable refugees and people who have received asylum in the United States to receive nutrition benefits for seven years, instead of five.

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