Local social services warns HR1 would narrow SNAP, add state costs and work requirements

Amber Bockelman, assistant director of benefit programs for Shenandoah Valley Department of Social Services, told the Staunton City Council on Sept. 25 that pending changes in federal legislation commonly called HR1 (referred to in the meeting as the “1 Big Beautiful Bill Act”) would tighten eligibility for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and make states take on a larger share of administrative and some benefit costs.

Bockelman opened by describing the local role: “Social services or local Department of Social Services are state supervised and locally administered,” and said Shenandoah Valley Social Services supports Staunton residents from two offices in the region.

She detailed proposed SNAP changes that would limit eligibility “to those who reside in the United States, who are a citizen, are lawfully admitted…Cuban Haitian entrants, or allowed to live and work in the United States under the compacts of free association,” and would remove refugees and asylees from eligibility unless the final statute includes them. She said the bill would expand the “able-bodied adults without dependents” (ABAWD) work or community-engagement requirement and…