Food stamps for all food items in 2024: On track for Senate passage

Anti-inflation measures should be implemented within a day. On Monday, the Senate is considering extending through the end of 2024 a waiver that allows food stamps to be used to buy all food items, with final passage possible in the House this evening.

The text has already been adopted by the National Assembly. And senators have a good chance of keeping the same draft as lawmakers to ensure final passage of this bill, which can then go into effect as quickly as possible before January 1st.

The system, introduced in 2022 and expiring on December 31, 2023, allows 5.4 million employees in France to use their “restaurant vouchers” to purchase products on the shelves that are not directly consumed (flour, pasta, etc.). meat, etc.), although these are usually intended for direct consumption products and not just for restaurants.

Towards a joint joint commission?

MPs have sounded the alarm in recent weeks that the exemption could be scrapped without an urgent vote on their part in both houses of parliament.

In the Senate, several environmentalist and centrist senators did introduce an amendment to limit the extension to six months, until June 30, 2024. If voted for, a joint committee would have to be convened very quickly to reach a compromise between deputies and senators before the end of the year.

However, this is not the wish of the Republicans’ spokesperson Marie-Dau Aeschlimann, who wants to stick to the original version, saying she is advocating a global reflection towards wider reform of food vouchers, which the government has also promised.

“Consumption patterns and employee expectations during lunch breaks have changed,” the senator explained. She notes a “tendency to want to go shopping and cook,” especially as remote work evolves.