Democrats grill USDA over school meal impact of proposed SNAP rule

House Democrats on Wednesday angrily questioned why the Agriculture Department took months to acknowledge that hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren would no longer be automatically eligible for free meals under a proposed rule aimed at cracking down on food stamp eligibility standards.

"After waiting months for this analysis, we now have learned that this rule will be even worse for students and families than we originally understood," said Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.), chairwoman of the House Education and Labor Civil Rights and Human Services Subcommittee.