WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 — The Bush administration proposed today to restore food stamps to many legal immigrants, whose eligibility for benefits was severely restricted by the 1996 welfare law.

The White House said that at least 363,000 people — legal immigrants who have not become citizens — would qualify for food stamps under the plan, to be included in the budget President Bush sends Congress in early February. The proposal would cost the federal government $2.1 billion over 10 years, the administration said. In October, 18.4 million people were receiving food stamps.

Mr. Bush's plan, or something like it, has an excellent chance of becoming law. The Senate is considering such changes as part of a far-reaching bill to reauthorize farm and nutrition programs. Under the proposal, the White House said, noncitizens with low incomes could qualify for food stamps after living here legally for five years. A similar test already applies to legal immigrants seeking Medicaid or cash assistance.

The welfare bill passed by Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996 made noncitizens ineligible for food stamps and many other types of assistance financed with federal money. Supporters of the ban, mostly Republicans, argued that federal benefits drew immigrants to the United States and then discouraged them from working.

Senator Phil Gramm, Republican of Texas, expressed the intent of Congress in 1996 when he said, "Immigrants should come to the U.S. with their sleeves rolled up, ready to work, not with their hands out, ready to go on welfare."

But today, amid a recession that is hurting many immigrants, and with the government waging a war on terrorism that has targeted some immigrants, Mr. Bush is eager to show his commitment to them. He is also eager to address domestic problems — a transition his father failed to make effectively a decade ago after the Persian Gulf war.

Many of those who could benefit from the food stamp proposal are Hispanic. The White House has been ardently courting Hispanic voters.

In an interview today, Newt Gingrich, the House speaker in 1996, said: "I strongly support the president's initiative. In a law that has reduced welfare by more than 50 percent, this is one of the provisions that went too far. In retrospect, it was wrong. President Bush's instincts are exactly right."

Mr. Bush is selectively disclosing parts of his budget in advance — specifically, those proposals likely to win political support — as Mr. Clinton often did.

Antihunger groups and Hispanic groups praised the Bush plan. "This is an enormous step forward, for which the president should be congratulated," said Cecilia Muñoz, vice president of the National Council of La Raza, a Latino civil rights group. "Mr. Bush did not speak out on this in the presidential campaign, and he had not done so since he assumed office."

As governor of Texas and as president, Mr. Bush has taken pride in his good relations with Hispanic Americans. Karl Rove, the president's senior political adviser, said last year that capturing a bigger share of the Hispanic vote was "our mission and our goal" and would require assiduous work by "all of us in every way."

But the Republican Party is split, and some Republicans have alienated Hispanic voters by espousing a restrictionist immigration policy.

Representative Tom Tancredo, Republican of Colorado, said he would fight the president's food stamp proposal because it would "entice people to come to the United States to be on welfare."

Mr. Tancredo, chairman of the Immigration Reform Caucus, with 55 members in the House, said: "The president has chosen to steal a page out of the Democrats' playbook. The Democrats have been enormously successful in buying votes through welfare. That's all this is, a sop to a Democrat-leaning voter bloc, an attempt to expand our political base by including the Hispanic vote."

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the government has detained more than 1,100 noncitizens for questioning and has stepped up enforcement of immigration laws. Mr. Bush insists he is waging war on terrorists, not immigrants, and his food stamp proposal can be cited to support that claim.

James D. Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, an antihunger group, said, "It's really positive that the administration wants to extend food stamp benefits to this group of legal immigrants." He said his group had been supporting a broader restoration of food stamps, as proposed by Senators Richard G. Lugar, Republican of Indiana, and Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa. But Mr. Weill said, "Everybody is moving in the same direction, and we are delighted to see that."

The economy is worse now than in 1996, when Mr. Clinton signed the welfare bill. "Immigrants have been hit hard by the economic downturn," Ms. Muñoz said, "and there's no safety net for those who arrived after 1996."

Welfare and food stamp rolls have plummeted since 1996, and members of Congress express much less concern now about being overwhelmed with the programs' cost, even though budget surpluses have evaporated.

In general, food stamps are available to people with gross incomes up to 30 percent above the poverty level. A three-person household can qualify if its gross income does not exceed $1,585 a month.

Federal officials said Mr. Bush's proposal would make it much easier for state and local employees to determine whether an immigrant was eligible for food stamps. The immigrants are generally ineligible now, but there are some exceptions based on a person's age, work history and date of entry into the United States.

About 800,000 immigrants were removed from food stamp rolls in 1996, according to the Agriculture Department, which runs the program. Two years later, benefits were restored to about 175,000 immigrants, mostly children and older people who were in the country before the legislation was signed in August 1996.