Pentagon does about-face on food stamp proposal; Cohen vetoes plan to deny benefit to troops

April 19, 2000
Web posted at: 4:54 a.m. EDT (0854 GMT)

In this story: Housing allowance issue Thousands of military families qualify for food stamps RELATED STORIES, SITES

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Defense Secretary William Cohen has killed a proposed policy change that would have denied food stamps to thousands of the neediest troops in the U.S. military.

Just hours after Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said the Pentagon would like to change the eligibility rules to cut off as many as 3,700 personnel who get free housing on military bases, Cohen said he would do just the opposite.

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Cohen called CNN and other news organizations to explain that he had not cleared the controversial idea, and that his recommendation would be that the rules be changed so that more military families -- not fewer -- would qualify for the assistance, if they need it.

"We don't want to deny a benefit to someone who already has it," Cohen told CNN in a phone call late Tuesday.

The problem comes from the fact that the Agriculture Department, which administers the food stamp program, counts a housing allowance as income, but doesn't count free housing on military bases the same way.

That means two military families with exactly the same income and family size are treated differently depending on whether they live on or off base.

Cohen told CNN he wants to correct that inequity by making it easier for troops living off base to get the food stamps, by convincing the Agriculture Department to no longer count housing allowances as income.

"If there is to be equity in on-base versus off-base housing," Cohen told CNN, "my recommendation would be that we make the same test for off and on. Their [families living off base] housing allowance should not be included."

The Pentagon gave the example of a sergeant with a spouse and three kids. If the family of five lives on a military base for free, his base pay including a food allowance would be $23,000 a year, which would qualify him for food stamps.

If the same sergeant lived off base, his yearly housing allowance of $6,300 would boost his income to $29,389, which means he would not qualify for food stamps.

The Pentagon estimates some 6,300 U.S. military personnel qualify for food stamps. All are in the lower enlisted ranks, and are married with children.

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