on the surface. Life in sunny san Diego looks picture
perfect. But behind closed doors it's a more
complicated story for the thousands of military
families based here. It's something he's always wanted
to do lisa Javan ours husband teddy enlisted in the
navy later in life after losing his job with a
cellphone company. He's an electronics technician with
the rank of petty officer third class very proud of him.
In 2020 the same year he joined the military, the
military spouse organization. Blue Star Families
conducted a survey. It showed 14% of active duty
enlisted families reported low or very low food
security. The lower the rank, the higher the threat of
hunger. I applied for snap benefits before he left for
bootcamp snap stands for supplemental nutrition
assistance program. It's a federal program to help with
food costs. Initially, Lisa was told their family of
five qualified for Snap benefit worth more than $500 a
month. But then a USDA representative called her
saying there was a mistake and petty officer third
class Javan are who brings home about $2000 monthly
earned too much by about $5 a month for her to call
back and say that she had made a mistake and that we
weren't gonna have that help after waiting over a month
for you know, so you're back even. And then to be told
that we didn't qualify and here's why some military
families that live off base get a basic allowance for
housing. Also known as B.A.H. It's taken out of their
check before they even see the money. The amount
depends on where they live in places like san Diego.
It's high. But one section of the USDA snap benefit
rules says all income should be included when
determining snap eligibility and the housing allowance
is not explicitly on the list of exceptions. In other
words, even though the housing money is a military
benefit to help service members live near bases, it's
still counted as income. So as far as the government is
concerned, military families li the Javan ours appear
to have more money on paper than they actually do a
bureaucratic oversight costing thousands of military
families critical benefits to keep them from going
hungry. Especially in high rent cities like san Diego
where the value of housing can easily put them over the
top. That's certainly the case for the Javan ours, it
costs a lot to feed two adults and three Children a
17, 10 and five. Hi, welcome to the event in tight
months, lisa like thousands of other military families
helps feed her family by joining a line like this, the
military equivalent of a food bank, its lines and lines
of cars. This event hosted by the steven, a cohen
military family clinic is just one of many health, it
means help the food assistance group feeding SAN Di
provides much of the food. It's a safety net. The Javan
ours are grateful for. But then there's also in the
back of my mind where I'm like, did I budget properly
Did we spend money on something Sorry, Like did we
spend money on something we shouldn't have this month
and I don't want to take from someone else that rea
needs it. To make matters worse. It's hard for military
spouses to get a job. There's a childcare issue,
frequent moves in an unpredictable schedule. It woul
be huge getting snap benefits, a lot of stress over a
bureaucratic oversight. So what the problem We had to
fly here to Washington, D.C. To find the answer. And as
we learned, the people who worked in this building have
the power to fix this, but it won't be quick. We got
involved in what should have been a very simple and
easy policy fix. That has been incredibly stubborn to
get over the finish line, josh Protess with the non
profit zone. A jewish response to hunger started
working on this problem Almost a decade ago. He says
his organization pushed for a fix in the 2018 farm bill,
which covers the snap program. But it didn't make the
final cut. Despite bipartisan support for helping
struggling military families, Congress just didn't
prioritize this to make that change. But why Because it
costs money. Report after report, highlight the problem.
Military families who are struggling can't eat another
report. They can't eat another survey. They need food.
The surveys helped to back that up. But we need
Congress to take action as a child. I was hungry. My
family relied on snap benefits for a time. The fight is
personal. The senator tammy Duckworth's from Illinois
A retired Army National Guard, lieutenant colonel. I
remember being a young lieutena And going out to eat
and my enlisted men couldn't couldn't afford to eat
Duckworth's helped add a section to the 2022 National
Defense Authorization Act that created a temporary
basic needs allowance. It's basically a monthly pay
boost to service members making below 130% of federal
poverty levels. That means abou $29,000 a year for a
family of three. But there's another catch. The N.D.
Won't be implemented until january 2023 it two counts
the housing allowance as income. That means the same
people who don't qualify for snap won't qualify for the
basic needs allowance. The defense spending bill does
allow the Secretary of Defense to make exemptions for
areas with the high cost of living. But it's not clear
what that will look like. Whether this is in Tampa
florida where you have central command. You take it to
Washington, D.C. Take you just name any major
metropolitan area that has military installations
around it. And they're going to be equally affected
hiding from the problem doesn't solve the problem. And
the best thing that we can do is to make sure that our
military men and women have access to the benefits that
they deserve and if they need the extra help that they
get the help that they need in another attempt to fix
the bureaucratic mix up senator and Alaska. Senator
lisa murkowski introduced a bill to stop the basic
housing allowance from being counted as income for snap
eligibility. It's been tried before. Unfortunately,
we've been following this issue for too long. There is
bipartisan support and you know, sometimes you got to
try two or three or four times before it passes, bu
I'm going to keep trying. The two senators introd
the latest bill in March, 11 other senators signed on
as co sponsors. Murkowski is the only Republican so far.
Why has it taken this long to do something It's a good
question. And it's a fair question. And you know, maybe
maybe it's a, maybe it's something that we don't want
to acknowledge that, that our military families are
financially strapped and stressed our federal
government has abdicated responsibility for this.
Fortunately there are some positive steps forward, but
they're not immediate and so from hungry military
families right now, the questio is, what do they eat
What are they going to put on the table right now It's
the same question the Javan ours have back in san Diego.
We know what we signed up for Doesn't make it any
easier. It's still difficult. A so to have to deal
with all of that and have to worry about how we're
going to feed our families. I mean, that's just it
would be awesome to not have that extra stress. We ask
so much of our military families and in return, we're
not keeping up our end of the bargain to just help them
meet their basic needs so that their families can grow
and thrive and reach their full potential. It's
shameful. And while they wait for Congress to finally
act families like the Javan ours are still stuck in the
trap serving the nation and paying the price. Now,
chance we went back and forth with the USDA on this to
see if they have the power to change the language an
the food and nutrition act of 2000 and eight. A USDA
spokesperson said they're takin a fresh look at their
authority with respect to this policy. Many told us
this will take an act of Congress to change. And we
asked multiple people, including senators Duckworth's
murkowski, if President biden could issue an executive
order here, Nobody is quite sure josh Protess with Zone
says they think it might be within the president's
authority, but it's up to the White House legal counsel
to decide. And of course, we'll keep following this or
it's a Giorgio families sacrificing so much an
important story