We urge FNS to quickly provide clear guidance on this issue to states so that they can correctly implement this provision.

The FNS guidance correctly notes that some LPRs are exempt from the 5-year bar and cites the correct part of the1996 law in a footnote, but does not include LPRs who previously had a humanitarian status in its list of exemptions.

By statute, and as long recognized by FNS, LPRs who came to the U.S. as refugees or were granted certain other humanitarian statuses are exempt from the 5- year waiting period for SNAP. This provision is part of the 1996 law and was not changed by this year’s legislation.

This includes immigrants from Afghanistan who received Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) for helping the U.S. government and who are generally immediately eligible for green cards.

The guidance is confusing about one of the more complicated aspects of the new law: the fact that refugees and other humanitarian immigrants remain exempt from the 5- year bar once they get their green cards.

Under the new guidance, states must apply the new policy to new applicants immediately, and must remove people losing eligibility from the program when they recertify.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that this policy will take away food assistance from approx 90,000 people each month over the next decade.

This policy goes far beyond even the harsh restrictions enacted in 1996 and overturns decades of bipartisan consensus that refugees and others fleeing violence and persecution should be able to receive the help they need as they rebuilt their lives here.

Groups that lose food assistance under this cruel policy include people who have experienced war and hardship and have been admitted as refugees, approved for asylum, as well as certain victims of domestic violence and sex or labor trafficking.

The megabill restricts #SNAP so severely that only a narrow group will continue to be able to get SNAP including: U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents (LPRs) (after a 5 yr wait if applicable), Cuban/Haitian entrants and COFA migrants.

At a time when more than half of people in the US say that the cost of groceries are a major stress, the megabill took away SNAP food assistance from many people granted humanitarian protection and living lawfully in the U.S.

This also comes at the exact moment when the Trump Administration is failing to live up to its obligations to states and to people eligible for #SNAP benefits by not using their authority to provide full benefits.

This absurd expectation is setting up states to fail – putting people at risk of losing #SNAP unnecessarily and states at greater risk of massive financial penalties under other provisions of the megabill.

Even though it took more than 3 months for FNS to provide states with any guidance, they issued the guidance with only 1 day for states to implement these provisions for new applicants.