New food insecurity stipend should help as many troops as possible, lawmakers argue

SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL
"Leo Shane III
Wed, March 30, 2022
House leaders are pushing military leaders to make eligibility and enrollment in the Defense Department’s new financial assistance program as generous as possible, saying that is needed to “address food and financial insecurity among servicemembers.”

In a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the group urged military leaders to move quickly on implementing the new Basic Needs Allowance and to automatically grant the financial help to all eligible families unless they specifically opt out of the program.

They also pushed for the department to exclude housing stipends in their calculations for program eligibility in order to benefit “as many service members as possible.”

On Monday, military leaders unveiled their budget plans for fiscal 2023, including the new Basic Needs Allowance authorized by Congress last year. Comptroller Michael McCord hailed the program as a way to help “the most vulnerable portion of our force to address economic insecurity,” but he offered few specifics on how the new benefit will be distributed."...

I hate seeing our troops on food stamps or having to access food banks.

Thank you Brother Joe, as a private living on the economy at Ft Ord, I can relate. Was hard enough as a SP4 in GA my friend.