S 2667 United States Senate · 117th Congress

Making Essentials Available and Lawful (MEAL) Act of 2021

Summary
Making Essentials Available and Lawful (MEAL) Act of 2021 This bill repeals a lifetime ban that prohibits individuals convicted of certain offenses related to the possession, use, or distribution of a controlled substance from receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits or assistance under programs funded by Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grants. Any state law that imposes conditions on eligibility for SNAP benefits or TANF assistance based on an individual's conviction of such an offense shall have no force or effect. In addition, individuals who are incarcerated and scheduled to be released within 30 days shall qualify as individual households for purposes of SNAP eligibility. Under current law, unless specifically excepted, individuals residing in institutions do not constitute a household.
Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Aug 2021
Committee Review
Floor Vote
President
Introduced Aug 5, 2021 Last action Aug 5, 2021
Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
2
Key actions
0
Committee
1
Aug 5, 2021
Committee
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
upper
Aug 5, 2021
Introduced
Introduced in Senate
upper
1 primary · 8 co-sponsors

Sponsors