Millions of Americans who are working full-time jobs still rely on federal health care and food assistance programs because of low wages, a bipartisan congressional watchdog says.

A report from the Government Accountability Office found that about 70% of adult workers participating in Medicaid, which provides health care to low-income Americans, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, are working full time. Most worked for private sector employers in places like restaurants, department stores and grocery stores, according to the report.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced Friday that the federal government may restrict food stamp recipients from purchasing sugary drinks and junk food as part of a broader effort to promote healthier eating.

The farm bill, which governs nutrition, agriculture, and conservation policy, is up for renewal again, and the negotiations in Congress have hit a familiar road block: the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, an anti-hunger program used by millions of low-income Americans. House Republicans and Senate Democrats have introduced competing versions of the bill, and they differ significantly when it comes to the so-called nutrition title, which includes funding for SNAP.

(The Center Square) - U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, introduced the Enhanced Cybersecurity for SNAP Act to prevent benefit theft along with U.S. Senators John Fetterman, D-Pennsylvania, and Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana. 

Tens of millions of SNAP benefits have been stolen by criminals exploiting flaws in the system's cybersecurity. However, Congress has been pushing the U.S. Department of Agriculture to require states to have secure chip cards rather than magnetic strips to make it harder for criminals to clone cards.

Since Mike Johnson’s recent ascent to House speaker, food insecurity advocates have been sounding the alarm. As Politico reported last week, Johnson is a proponent of more hard-line efforts to overhaul America’s largest anti-hunger program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which currently serves over 40 million people. 

In 2018, per the publication, he referred to SNAP as “our nation’s most broken and bloated welfare program.” 

Harvard University recently encouraged its graduate students to enroll in government food assistance programs amid ongoing discussions about its immense wealth and growing scrutiny regarding the extent of support provided to its student community.

Harvard’s Health Services office circulated a flier promoting a sign-up event encouraging graduate students to participate in the SNAP program, Yahoo Finance reported. 

The ending of the Covid-19 public-health emergency means a reset for the country’s food stamps program, which aids more than 41 million Americans, as lawmakers weigh whether to make more far-reaching changes as part of the next farm bill. 

An extra boost in the food assistance for low-income households that Congress authorized at the start of the pandemic will wind down this month, and additional leeway afforded to states around some of the program’s rules will end in May. 

With all the developments in Afghanistan and Haiti, you may have missed this historic announcement out of Washington:

The Biden administration has approved updates to the program known as SNAP, giving families who currently receive food stamps the largest single increase in benefits to date.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday released a re-evaluation of the Thrifty Food Plan, which is used to calculate SNAP benefits, based on changes to nutritional guidance, food prices and what Americans eat.

President Joe Biden plans to sign two executive orders Friday to address the economic toll of the coronavirus pandemic, including expanding food stamps and beginning the process to require that everyone working for the federal government get a minimum wage of $15 an hour.

National Economic Council Director Brian Deese said the orders, which add to a slew Biden has already approved, are "not a substitute" for the massive $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill that Biden hopes Congress will pass, but rather a "critical lifeline" for millions of Americans who need assistance now.

A judge on Sunday struck down the Trump administration's efforts to make it more difficult for some adults to receive food stamps. In a 67-page opinion, Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell of D.C. condemned the administration for failing to consider how the rule would impact an estimated hundreds of thousands of Americans during the pandemic.