In a bipartisan effort, House members from both sides of the aisle have thrown their support behind two bills introduced last week, aimed at expanding federal assistance to alleviate hunger among American troops and their families. A similar initiative is also underway in the Senate.

Recent data from the Pentagon reveals that approximately 286,800 active-duty personnel, nearly 25% of military servicemembers, experience “low food security.” Out of this group, an estimated 120,000 face “very low food security,” meaning they intermittently consume less food, skip meals, or lose weight, according to the Defense Department.

The bills, sponsored by Representative Jimmy Panetta, a Democrat from California, seek to revise the regulations governing federal aid for military personnel. One bill focuses on modifying the Pentagon‘s basic needs allowance, a supplemental income program. The other bill aims to bring changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) administered by the Agriculture Department.

Under the current rules of both programs, housing allowances provided to military personnel, which can amount to thousands of dollars per year, are considered as income. As a result, experts argue that thousands of troops are unable to qualify for either Pentagon or SNAP aid. The newly proposed House bills would exclude housing payments from income calculations. The Pentagon program will be discussed during the debate over the National Defense Authorization Act, while the SNAP program will be part of this year’s farm bill debate.

In the Senate, Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth from Illinois and Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski from Alaska are leading a bipartisan group of over a dozen senators who support a bill to make similar changes in the SNAP program. Many of these senators also back the modification of the Pentagon program. However, Duckworth believes that if SNAP is fixed, there would no longer be a need for separate aid from the Defense Department.

Lawmakers in both the House and Senate have previously attempted to amend the rules surrounding the Pentagon‘s basic needs allowance. The House Armed Services Committee has excluded housing allowances from income calculations for the basic needs allowance in the past two years’ National Defense Authorization Act. Both times, the Senate Armed Services Committee declined to adopt the change during the conference.

The prospects for change this year in either the basic needs allowance or SNAP, or perhaps both, appear more favorable. It has become increasingly evident that the current programs only assist a small fraction of military families facing food insecurity.

With inflation exceeding 6% and military spouses encountering challenges in obtaining and maintaining employment due to frequent relocations, lower-ranking enlisted personnel with families are likely to continue struggling to feed their loved ones without expanded aid. Abby J. Leibman, president and CEO of Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger, emphasized that military hunger poses a threat to readiness, retention, and recruitment for the Armed Forces, urging Congress to take action.

In the House, Panetta has garnered support from several Republicans, including Don Bacon of Nebraska, a former Air Force officer who chairs a special new Armed Services panel focusing on quality of life for military personnel, as well as Blake D. Moore of Utah and Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington State. Several Democrats, including Marilyn Strickland of Washington State, Sara Jacobs and Mike Levin of California, have also co-sponsored the bill to modify the basic needs allowance. McMorris Rodgers, who chairs the Energy and Commerce Committee, has also signed on as an original co-sponsor of the proposal to revise SNAP income calculations.

Panetta emphasized the need for these common-sense bipartisan bills to pass and be signed into law, ensuring the health and well-being of service members and their families who contribute daily to the nation’s security.