Immigrants' continued eligibility for education and health benefits renders the status-based Food Stamp restrictions counterproductive. The Hunger Relief Act restores Food Stamp eligibility to all legal immigrants. Also, disparate vehicle allowance standards for Food Stamps and TANF increase administrative costs for states in both programs. The Hunger Relief Act allows states the option of using the same rules to count the value of a vehicle under both TANF and Food Stamps. Congress phased out the cap on this deduction in 1993, but restored it in 1996.
Elderly individuals are exempt from the cap, but working families are still subject to it.
This cap reduces food stamp benefits to over 729,000 households with children as housing costs rise, forcing many working families to choose between heating and eating. In their April 1999 nationwide report, Housing America and the Doc4Kids Project carefully describe adverse health, educational, and nutrition consequences wrought by a shortage of low-cost housing. The private charitable sector cannot meet present needs alone. The Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Act of 1998 restored food stamp benefits to 250,000 legal immigrants. Despite this restoration, many legal immigrants remain ineligible for federal food stamp benefits.