Lawmakers from both parties and in both chambers say they are mounting a new push this year to revise laws that are keeping perhaps tens of thousands of hungry military families from receiving federal assistance.
Based on the latest Defense Department survey of U.S. troops, some 286,800 in the active-duty force — or nearly one in four military servicemembers — experience “low food security.” Of those, an estimated 120,000 are faced with “very low food security,” meaning they periodically eat less, miss meals or lose weight, the survey indicated. The figures do not count the spouses or children of those troops, nor do the numbers include reservists and their families.
Despite the apparently widespread extent of the problem, only a tiny portion of needy servicemembers are being reached by federal assistance programs that are meant for lower-income citizens, according to recent analyses by both CQ Roll Call and research groups. That is because of the way two programs — one in the Defense Department and the other in the Agriculture Department — are constructed, some lawmakers say.
