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The House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill that would allow federal food benefits to be used for hot rotisserie chickens.
The House voted in overwhelming bipartisan fashion, 384 to 35, to add hot chicken to the list of foods eligible for purchase with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.
Program benefits typically can be used only for grocery store foods for people to make and consume at home, rather than hot prepared foods or restaurant meals. And Republicans have pushed to narrow what sorts of foods can be purchased. The Trump administration has been encouraging states to disallow SNAP purchases of sugary drinks and candy. So the vote was somewhat surprising.
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House Agriculture Committee chair Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.), whose committee oversees SNAP, told HuffPost his family buys rotisserie chickens and usually doesn't eat them immediately.
"We take it home, throw it in the fridge, and then we'll eat it for a week. You know, it's easier to debone when it's a little warm," Thompson said.
The House approved the chicken change as an amendment to a much broader "farm bill" that sets farm subsidy and food system policies. The measure, officially titled the Healthy Obtainable Tasty Rotisserie Chicken Act, was introduced by Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.).
It's unlikely the Senate will pass the same bill; ultimately the two chambers will have to agree on some sort of compromise. So it's not clear how soon people could be buying whole hot chickens with SNAP benefits.
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said it was weird for the House to approve hot chicken and not other foods, such as hot soup.
"I have no problem with chicken, but I mean, why chicken and not all hot foods? I mean, I guess Perdue weighed in," McGovern told HuffPost, referring to the chicken conglomerate.
