{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/news-new-gao-report-finds-taxpayers-continue-to-subsidize-poverty-wages-at-walmart-amazon-other-large-corporations-as-corporate-welfare-spikes-since-2020/", "NEWS: New GAO Report Finds Taxpayers Continue to Subsidize Poverty Wages at Walmart, Amazon, Other Large Corporations as Corporate Welfare Spikes Since 2020", "2026-07-22", "2026", "2026-07", "Independent", "Senate", "VT", "Bernard Sanders", "S000033", "www.sanders.senate.gov", "sanders", "https://www.sanders.senate.gov/media/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, July 22 \u2013 According to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, some of the largest and most profitable American corporations and their wealthy CEOs continue to pay their employees wages so low that those workers are forced to rely on Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) \u2014 subsidized by U.S taxpayers \u2014 to survive.\n\nCommissioned by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), and released today by the GAO, this report analyzes data from 11 states comprising nearly a fifth of the U.S. population, builds on the findings of a 2020 GAO report, and details how the number of workers relying on Medicaid and SNAP has grown significantly over the past six years. Across 11 states, the report found that an estimated 13.8 million working Americans were forced to enroll in Medicaid and 10.6 million depended on SNAP to make ends meet and feed their families, despite working full-time \u2014 up from 12 million and 9 million, respectively, in the 2020 report.\n\n\u201cAmerican taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize the starvation wages of large corporations like Walmart and Amazon. These corporations are making record-breaking profits, paying their CEOs exorbitant compensation packages and spending billions of dollars on stock buybacks to enrich their wealthy shareholders. It is beyond unacceptable that these corporations, owned by some of the wealthiest people on the planet, are receiving corporate welfare from the federal government,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cIt is time for the Walton family, worth $485 billion, and Mr. Bezos, worth $257 billion, to get off of welfare and pay their workers a living wage with good benefits. No one who works for a company making billions in profits should be living in poverty. This is especially true after these corporations and their multibillionaire owners received a massive tax break from President Trump\u2019s so-called \u2018Big, Beautiful Bill,\u2019 paid for by the largest cuts to Medicaid and nutrition assistance in history.\u201d\n\nGAO\u2019s report found that Walmart, Amazon and other large, profitable corporations have particularly egregious records of forcing workers to utilize Medicaid and SNAP:\n\nDespite increasing its annual profits from $14.88 billion to $21.89 billion during this period, Walmart employed 16,055 workers who had to rely on Medicaid in the states GAO sampled \u2014 a 55% increase from the previous report. Walmart also employed 15,515 workers who needed SNAP assistance in the states GAO sampled. Overall, Walmart again ranked among the top employers of workers on these programs in every one of the 11 states.\n\nDespite increasing its annual profits from $11.59 billion to $77.67 billion, Amazon employed 12,346 workers who needed SNAP assistance and 11,338 workers who had to rely on Medicaid in the states GAO sampled \u2014 nearly triple the number of Amazon workers who needed federal assistance compared to the previous report.\n\nFedEx, which made $4.33 billion in profit, saw its workers on Medicaid more than triple (from 1,046 to 3,814) and its SNAP workers nearly double (from 2,622 to 4,944) since the first report, in the states GAO sampled.\n\nThe GAO also found that rideshare and delivery companies now rank among the very top employers of program recipients in several states \u2014 along with McDonald\u2019s, Dollar General, Dollar Tree and FedEx.\n\nIn February, Sanders requested that four major corporations that employ large numbers of people who rely on Medicaid and SNAP \u2013 Walmart, Kroger, Dollar General, and Dollar Tree \u2013 answer how much they expect to make from the Republicans\u2019 tax breaks and whether any of these savings will be passed along to their workers.\n\nAcross nine states (Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Nebraska, North Carolina, Tennessee and Washington), these corporations and sectors employed the following numbers of SNAP recipients in the GAO report:\n\nRideshare/Delivery apps \u2013 22,709\n\nWalmart \u2013 15,515\n\nAmazon \u2013 12,346\n\nMcDonald\u2019s \u2013 6,709\n\nDollar General \u2013 5,187\n\nFedEx \u2013 4,944\n\nDollar Tree \u2013 4,229\n\nKroger \u2013 3,302\n\nBurger King \u2013 2,186\n\nFamily Dollar \u2013 1,933\n\nWalgreens \u2013 1,747\n\nTarget \u2013 1,695\n\nHome Depot \u2013 1,633\n\nTaco Bell \u2013 1,569\n\nAcross six states (Georgia, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Rhode Island), these corporations and sectors employed the following numbers of Medicaid enrollees in the GAO report:\n\nWalmart \u2013 16,055\n\nAmazon \u2013 11,338\n\nRideshare/Delivery apps \u2013 6,120\n\nDollar General \u2013 5,601\n\nMcDonald\u2019s \u2013 4,710\n\nFedEx \u2013 3,814\n\nDollar Tree \u2013 3,265\n\nKroger \u2013 2,818\n\nTarget \u2013 2,326\n\nHome Depot \u2013 1,985\n\nFamily Dollar \u2013 1,845\n\nStop & Shop \u2013 1,691\n\nWalgreens \u2013 1,300\n\nCVS \u2013 1,209", 1, "2026-07-23T07:31:02Z", "2026-07-23T07:32:26Z"]], "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://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/news-new-gao-report-finds-taxpayers-continue-to-subsidize-poverty-wages-at-walmart-amazon-other-large-corporations-as-corporate-welfare-spikes-since-2020/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7109059952199459, "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"}