Jeff Van Drew's February 25, 2025 vote decided a budget plan that set savings targets for the committees over SNAP ($230 billion) and Medicaid ($880 billion); his May 22 vote decided the House's passage of the bill; and on July 3 he voted for the final law, a law the Congressional Budget Office scores as roughly $13,600 a year richer for the best-off tenth of households and poorer for the bottom tenth.
Homeless people also lost their exemption from SNAP's three-month limit. In New Jersey, KFF projects 300,000 more uninsured residents in 2034, and in Van Drew's district, New Jersey's 2nd, 54,600 children were on Medicaid in 2025.
Jeff Van Drew's Votes on Aid for New Jersey's Lowest-Income Households
- Van Drew Voted for the House Bill and Then the Final Law, Which Leaves the Poorest Tenth $1,200 a Year Behind, in 2025. In May 2025 the House bill could not spare Jeff Van Drew: it won 215 to 214 on May 22 with his yes. He was a yes again at final passage on July 3, 2025, when the count was 218 to 214. By the Congressional Budget Office's accounting, households in the lowest income tenth come out behind by about $1,200 a year, largely because of the law's Medicaid and SNAP reductions, while the richest tenth come out ahead by about $13,600. Its SNAP reduction of $187 billion through 2034 sets a record for the program, according to Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analysts.
- Van Drew Supplied the Deciding Vote for a Budget Plan That Took Aim at SNAP and Medicaid, in February 2025. Van Drew was in the 217-member majority that adopted H.Con.Res. 14 over 215 opponents on February 25, 2025; had he alone switched, the vote would have tied and failed. Its instructions told committees to reduce the deficit: the Agriculture Committee, which oversees SNAP, by no less than $230 billion, and Energy and Commerce, which oversees Medicaid, by no less than $880 billion. Under the law that followed, which Van Drew voted for on July 3, 2025, a homeless adult, a veteran or a young person leaving foster care is no longer excused from SNAP's three-month clock; the Congressional Budget Office counts a net 300,000 fewer of them getting SNAP.
What Jeff Van Drew's Votes Mean for Low-Income Families in New Jersey and His District
- 54,600 children in Van Drew's district get their health care through Medicaid. KFF counts 54,600 children among the 162,900 Medicaid enrollees in New Jersey's 2nd District in 2025, a third of everyone on the program there. For a family living paycheck to paycheck, that coverage is the difference between taking a feverish child to the doctor and waiting it out, and the law cuts New Jersey's federal Medicaid funding by $28.71 billion over a decade.
- The law's Medicaid rules help push 300,000 more New Jersey residents into the uninsured by 2034. The law alone pushes New Jersey's uninsured count up by 300,000 by 2034, KFF projects, as Medicaid's new paperwork and work rules push low-income adults off coverage. For a family with little income, one uninsured hospital stay can mean a debt it has no way to pay.
- Tens of thousands of low-income New Jersey adults were at risk of losing SNAP in CBPP's June 2025 estimate. For the Senate Agriculture Committee's proposal with the same expansions the law adopted, a June 2025 Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimate found 22,000 New Jersey adults ages 55 to 64 and 26,000 parents of teenagers at risk of losing food aid each month. Homeless residents lost their exemption outright. When the three months run out, the grocery money stops, and families turn to food banks.
Frequently Asked Questions About Jeff Van Drew on Homelessness and poverty
What is Jeff Van Drew's record on homelessness and poverty under Trump?
Twice in 2025 Jeff Van Drew's vote was decisive, first on the February budget resolution and then on the House's May passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act; the final law, which drew his yes on July 3, 2025, passed 218 to 214. Under it, Congressional Budget Office figures show the bottom tenth of households down about $1,200 a year and the top tenth up about $13,600, and homeless SNAP recipients no longer have an exemption from the program's time limit.
When do the cuts in the law Jeff Van Drew voted for reach low-income New Jersey households?
In stages, under the law Jeff Van Drew voted for: many states began enforcing the wider SNAP time limit on February 1, 2026; New Jersey has paid 75 percent of SNAP's administrative costs since October 1, 2026; the Medicaid work requirement must be running by January 1, 2027, the same date retroactive Medicaid coverage shrinks; and from October 1, 2028, expansion adults just above the poverty line can be charged up to $35 per service.
Did Jeff Van Drew vote to end SNAP's exemption for homeless people?
Yes: on July 3, 2025, Jeff Van Drew voted for the final law, which ended the time-limit exemption homeless SNAP recipients had relied on. Since many states began enforcing the change on February 1, 2026, a homeless adult without a documented 80 hours a month of work, volunteering or study gets three months of SNAP in three years.
Last updated: 2026-10-27