{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://adams.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/thanksgiving-140-members-congress-support-adams-harris-bill-expand-and", "This Thanksgiving, 140 Members of Congress Support Adams-Harris Bill to Expand and Strengthen SNAP Benefits", "2020-11-23", "2020", "2020-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "NC", "Alma Adams", "A000370", "adams.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C.This Thanksgiving season, 16 Members of Congress joinedCongresswoman Alma Adamsas well asU.S. Senators Kamala D. Harris (D-CA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), among others,in supporting theClosing the Meal Gap Act,legislation that expands and strengthens Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for vulnerable community members that are struggling to make ends meet. With food banks experiencing skyrocketing demand across the country, the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has drastically increased the need for SNAP to combat food insecurity.\nCongresswoman Alma Adamsoriginally introducedtheClosing the Meal Gap Act in 2017 before introducing it again in 2019. TheClosing the Meal Gap Acthas beenendorsed by Feeding America and the Food Research and Action Centerand currently has139 cosponsors in Congress.\nEven before the COVID-19 pandemic began,more thanthirty-five millionAmericansstruggled every day to put food on their table. Now, it's even clearer thatSNAPbenefits are simply not generous enough to provide the help people need,said Congresswoman Adams.Feeding America reports that, due to the pandemic, more thanfifty millionAmericansmay experience food insecurity in 2020, which is why strengthening SNAP is more important than ever.This Thanksgiving, no family should go without food on their table.\nNew cosponsors includeRepresentatives Luis Correa (CA-46), Alan Lowenthal (CA-47), Tom O'Halleran (AZ-01), Donald Payne (NJ-10), Mikie Sherrill (NJ-11), Juan Vargas (CA-51), Susan Wild (PA-07), Gerald Connolly (VA-11), Madeleine Dean (PA-04), Jared Huffman (CA-02), Doris Matsui (CA-06), Joseph Morelle (NY-25), Terri Sewell (AL-07), Albio Sires (NJ-08), Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-08), and Brendan Boyle (PA-02).\nTheClosing the Meal Gap Actis endorsed byThe Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), Feeding America, Share Our Strength, MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, Miami-Dade County, the Ecumenical Poverty Initiative, the NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, RESULTS: The Power to End Poverty, and Loaves & Fishes (NC).\nSNAP is one of our nation's most important and effective anti-hunger programs; it has been proven todecrease food insecurity and poverty and improve long-term health outcomesfor recipients. However, the rising cost of food in our country outpaces SNAP benefits each year, forcing families to choose between putting food on their tables and covering other important expenses. SNAP benefits provide a mere$1.39 per meal. That's partially because benefit levels are based on the Thrifty Food Plan, a restrictive model used to calculate food costs that does not meet the needs of today's low wage workers and their families.The latestUSDA Household Food Securityreport showed that the typical U.S. household spent 28 percent more on food than Thrifty Food Plan estimates.\nThe Closing the Meal Gap Act which would help families put food on the table by modernizing and improving SNAP to meet the needs of the moment.\nThe Closing the Meal Gap Act of 2019 will:\n Support seniors and people with disabilitieswho face high medical costsby permanently authorizing the standard medical deduction in every state at a minimum of $140.Individuals with high expenses could continue to apply for a higher, itemized medical deduction.\n\tIncrease benefits by approximately 30 percentby modernizing the SNAP formulato better take into account for the cost of nutritious food and household needs and raising the minimum SNAP benefit from $16 to $25 per month.\n\tEase the burden on families living in areas with high rent and utility costsby eliminating the cap on the Excess Shelter Deductionto better take into account the cost of living for these SNAP recipients.\n\tProvide relief for college students struggling to earn an educationby allowing full-time and half-time students who qualify for SNAP to be exempt from work requirements.\n Text of the bill can be foundhere.\nCosponsors of theClosing the Meal Gap Actin the 116thCongress includeRepresentatives Aguilar, Barragn, Bass, Beatty, Bishop, Jr., Blumenauer, Boyle, Brown, Brownley, Butterfield, Carbajal, Crdenas, Carson, Castro, Chu, Cicilline, Clark, Clarke, Clay, Cleaver, Cohen, Connolly, Correa, Cox, Crist, Cummings, Davis, Dean, DeGette, DeLauro, DelBene, DeSaulnier, Deutch, Doyle, Eshoo, Espaillat, Evans, Gallego, Garamendi, Garca (IL), Garcia (TX), Gomez, Gonzalez, Grijalva, Haaland, Hastings, Hayes, Heck, Huffman, Jackson Lee, Jayapal, Johnson (TX), Kaptur, Keating, Kennedy, Khanna, Kilmer, Krishnamoorthi, Langevin, Larsen, Lawson, Lee (CA), Levin (MI), Lewis, Lieu, Lofgren, Lowenthal, Lujan, Lynch, Malinowski, C. Maloney, S. Maloney, Matsui, McEachin, McGovern, McNerney, Meeks, Meng, Moore, Morelle, Moulton, Nadler, Napolitano, Neal, Neguse, Norton, O'Halleran, Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Pallone, Payne, Perlmutter, Peters, Pingree, Pocan, Pressley, Price, Raskin, Rice (NY), Richmond, Rouda, Roybal-Allard, Ruppersberger, Rush, Ryan, Snchez, Sarbanes, Scanlon, Schakowsky, Schiff, Schrier, Serrano, Sewell, Sherman, Sherrill, Sires, Smith, Soto, Speier, Swalwell, Takano, Thompson (CA), Tlaib, Tonko, Torres, Trahan, Vargas, Veasey, Velazquez, Wasserman Schultz, Waters, Watson Coleman, Welch, Wild, and Wilson; SenatorsHarris, Gillibrand, Sanders, and Menendez.\nCongresswomanAlmaAdamsrepresents North Carolina's 12thCongressional District (Charlotte) and serves asViceChairof the House Committee onAgriculture. Additionally, she serves on the House Financial Services Committee and the House Education & Labor Committee, where she serves asChairof the Workforce Protections Subcommittee.\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://adams.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/thanksgiving-140-members-congress-support-adams-harris-bill-expand-and"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5436739195138216, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}