Sec. 2. Findings

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A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.

Congress finds the following: In 2022, according to the Department of Agriculture, 44,151,000 individuals in the United States (including 13,394,000 children) lived in food insecure households. Food hardship continues to be high, even after the official end of the COVID–19 public health emergency, with the Household Pulse Survey of the Bureau of the Census finding that, between March 1 and April 1, 2024, 23,220,357 individuals in the United States did not have enough to eat either often or sometimes.

In 2022, according to the Bureau of the Census, 37,920,000 individuals in the United States (including 11,149,000 children) lived below the Federal poverty line. The majority of these individuals living in poverty were working people, children, older individuals, veterans, and individuals with disabilities. Many low-income individuals work multiple jobs and, contrary to common misconceptions, if unemployed, they spend a great deal of time looking for work. They often travel by public transportation, laboriously making multiple connections to shuttle between home, work, social service agencies, houses of worship, and grocery stores.

Low-income individuals living in rural and suburban areas far from work and without adequate public transportation rely upon vehicles to get to work, but these vehicles are often less reliable secondhand vehicles that often break down. From traveling greater distances between available jobs and livable areas with affordable housing options, seeking out scarce childcare options that fit a tight budget and a constrained travel schedule, and caring for elderly parents or grandparents because a senior living facility is not financially realistic, low-income individuals have little spare time.

While government safety net programs help tens of millions of individuals avoid starvation, homelessness, and other outcomes even more dreadful than everyday poverty, there are significant obstacles that those seeking and maintaining government assistance face for as long as they are eligible. Qualified applicants are often required to travel significant distances to multiple government offices, preparing and submitting piles of nearly identical paperwork to access the different government assistance programs.

Even when the application process begins online, the eligible applicant is often still required to physically follow up with each government office with physical copies, for near identical meetings. As a result, many low-income people are actually unaware of all the government benefits for which they are eligible, reducing the amount of help going to individuals in need by tens of billions of dollars every year. The lines in these offices can seem endless, and sometimes clients need to wait outside for hours in the worst kinds of weather.

Many offices do not have weekend or night hours, so an applicant is at risk of losing wages when often their only option is to apply for government help during work hours. Each year, many vital government programs go underutilized because eligible beneficiaries are hindered by obtrusive, time consuming, and repetitive application barriers. In fiscal year 2019, according to the Department of Agriculture, 18 percent of all people eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (referred to in this paragraph as SNAP ), 23 percent of the working poor eligible for SNAP, and 68 percent of adults over 60 who were eligible for SNAP failed to participate in such program.

According to the Department of Agriculture, the overall coverage rate of pregnant women, infants, and children up to age 5 eligible for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (commonly known as WIC ) declined from 55 percent in 2016 to 50 percent in 2020. In fiscal year 2023, according to the Department of Agriculture, 47 percent of children in the United States who received meals through the National School Lunch Program did not received meals through the School Breakfast Program.

In 2022, 8 percent of individuals in the United States lacked health insurance for the entire year, according to the Bureau of the Census. The Internal Revenue Service estimates that one in 5 low-income United States workers eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit do not claim it. The United States has hundreds of thousands of nonprofit groups providing high-quality and much needed social services, but it is nearly impossible for struggling people to determine which of those organizations provide services they need, whether the organization is conveniently located, and for which services they are eligible.

If they do determine that a nonprofit organization (or multiple nonprofit organizations) could help, they need to take yet more time to visit each one. Since many government and nonprofit programs require frequent reapplications and recertifications, a low-income individual often has to repeat the same endless and frustrating process. Technology has fundamentally revamped the lives of most individuals, usually for the better. According to the Pew Research Center, 79 percent of adult individuals with incomes of $30,000 or less have a smart phone as of 2023 (not because a smart phone is a luxury but because it is an essential tool of learning and work in modern United States) but they rarely can use these devices to apply for benefits.

Digital technology, combined with policy improvements, can simplify the lives and boost the long-term self-sufficiency of low-income individuals in the United States.