Acting SRS Secretary Phyllis Gilmore before the Senate Ways and Means Committee. (Photo by Stephen Koranda)The acting secretary of SRS, Phyllis Gilmore, says she’s open to proposals to address a controversial change in the food stamp program. The move effectively made hundreds of Kansas children ineligible for food stamps. Officials who made the change said the old policy favored households headed by illegal immigrants. There are proposals in the works that could again make some of those U.S.-born children eligible for assistance. Gilmore says she would consider them.
A Senate committee is considering Gilmore’s nomination to head SRS. Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for food stamps. But their children, who sometimes are U.S. citizens, can be eligible.