House Republicans are laying the groundwork for a fresh effort to overhaul the food stamp program during Donald Trump’s presidency, with the possibility of new work and eligibility requirements for millions of people.
The GOP majority on the House Agriculture Committee released a two-year review of the program on Wednesday that stops short of making specific policy recommendations, but hints at areas where Republicans could focus: strengthening work requirements and perhaps issuing new ones, tightening some eligibility requirements or providing new incentives to encourage food stamp recipients to buy healthier foods.
“There’s nothing off the table when it comes to looking at solutions around these areas where we think improvements need to be made,” the committee chairman, Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, said in an interview with The Associated Press.
He noted there is nothing in the review that suggests “gutting” or getting rid of the program, which he said serves a critical mission.
The food stamp program, called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) now serves about 43.6 million people and cost $74 billion in 2015. Participation in the program rose sharply as the country suffered a recession. The program now costs roughly twice what it did in 2008.
The report, based on 16 hearings by the committee, recommends better enforcement of some SNAP work programs in certain states, and finds that 42 states use broad eligibility standards that some Republicans have criticized as too loose. It encourages more incentives to get people to buy healthy food with their food stamp dollars, addressing criticism that recipients use public money for junk foods. The report cites Agriculture Department data showing that 10 percent of foods typically purchased by SNAP households are sweetened beverages.
It’s unclear how or when an overhaul could happen.
Food stamp policy is included in a wide-ranging farm bill every five years; the next one is due in 2018. It also could be part of a larger effort headed by House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to tackle a welfare or entitlement overhaul, if that should happen in the next Congress.
Still, food stamp changes always have been a hard sell in Congress.
Democrats almost unilaterally oppose any changes. Some Republicans from poorer districts are also wary. The 1996 welfare law added some new work requirements, but Congress declined to convert federal food stamp dollars into block grants for the states, a move that would cut spending for the program.
In 2013, House Republican leaders tried to cut the program by 5 percent annually by passing broad work requirements as part of the last farm bill. The House bill also included drug testing for recipients.
The then-Democratic Senate balked, though, and the final bill included a much smaller cut and no allowances for drug testing.
Conaway said he’s open to any of those policies, but suggested that block granting the program — a past priority for Ryan — or drug testing recipients are not his priorities.
“We don’t want to be helping folks on drugs, but then again, folks on drugs have children,” Conaway said.
On block grants, Conaway said it’s not off the table, but not a priority.
He said the report should help lawmakers be “not as knee-jerk reactionary as they have been in the past.” The 2013 effort didn’t resonate well, he has said, because Republicans didn’t spell out why it was necessary.
Part of the calculation will be what Ryan proposes. He strongly supported block granting food stamps as part of his larger plans for welfare reform when he was chairman of the House Budget Committee. But an agenda he released this year after becoming speaker was vaguer, only suggesting that some food aid programs could be consolidated.
As for Trump, he’s said little about what he’d want to do with the program. But he has frequently mentioned how the rolls have increased since President Barack Obama took office.
GOP Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, was heavily involved in the 1996 welfare overhaul. He has said his committee will review the food stamp program, but hasn’t made any specific proposals.
He says block grants would face significant opposition in the Senate, and he’s not sure whether new work requirements would pass muster, either.
“To be determined,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
If the recipients are body-able, have them work for their food. Sure, a little help is ok, but if they get freebies all the time, they don’t see any need to look for a job.
Yes and drug test! Yes ppl on drugs have children but they know they have children before drug use! They sell their EBT for drugs and then go to churches/food banks to feed their children! So how many times are the taxpayers paying to feed their kids?
I TOTALLY agree!!! I am permanently disabled, and a single father of two young girls!!! My youngest is 4 so I have to be on the WIC program were I have to take her in every couple months for nutrition testing and classes showing her why and how to eat vegetables and fruits for snacks instead of candy or chips…. They also give me checks for buying milk, juice, cereal, bread, cheese, peanut butter and fruits or vegetables. That was one of the hardest things i ever had to do… But the cashiers were nice and said it was great to see a man who has full custody of his daughters taking care of them, cuz I guess there’s not a whole lot of men that do that… Plus they aren’t covered by my Medicare so they have to be on Medicaid which means I have to go through health and welfare and they take all your information and tell you they will give you so much for food stamps. Well I scrape to make a living off my retirement, and I have two BEAUTIFUL daughters that are growing so fast and they are hungry all the time lol… So I never asked for any of this, but I have to deal with health and welfare, and the funny thing is that I get $48.00 a month for food stamps! And I know and have seen a lot of people that say they can’t find work even though there is help wanted signs all over the place, but for some reason they all feel like they’re entitled to employment making six figures a year so they think they’re to good to take a job that pays minimum wage, and even jobs that pay two times the amount of minimum wage… So they’re all just sitting around waiting for money to fall in their laps but are collecting money from health and welfare, and a lot are single with no kids but get $500.00 a month in food stamps!!! It’s all a joke!!!! The people that actually need it are denied and the people that really don’t need it are approved for the max amount of snap and MONEY!!! Cuz they even give people money!!! I couldn’t believe it… I never got offered any cash to go with my $48 in food stamps LOL!!! It is all a joke!!!
The whole welfare system needs to have much stronger rules, and be enforced!! Drug testing, Work requirements for ALL able bodied recipient- if nothing else, they can pick up trash, answer phones in a government office to earn the help they get, or work in a child care place so some parents can hold down a real job. The point is- NOT BE ALLOWED TO GET $$$ for just hanging out at home eating candy, smoking & drugging or drinking!! The seriously handicapped must be checked to be sure they truly ARE handicapped.
I have a family member who is seriously medically handicapped, but still manages to work as a public accountant & tax preparer to supplement the small SSI check she receives. But I have seen strong, healthy college guys, buying steak, etc. paying with some sort of public assistance, and standing in a grocery store bragging to a couple girls how well he is taking the system, but not feeling like he should work for it-even though he had been offered a good paying job !!! MY TAX $$$!!!!
Fix the food stamp credit card so it can’t be used in an ATM. I’m tired of my tax money going to support drug and alcohol habits of users. If people with children can’t pass a drug test, then maybe their children are being cared for improperly….maybe those people should be investigated by state agencies. Or another abuse is selling the card for a lesser amount and the card is used by an unauthorized person. The government has to get control of this fraud and illegal use of the EBT card.
If able to work, then they don’t get food stamps. If more than 2 children and no father, very few food stamps and if another child and no father, no food stamps. Photo ID and drug tests for food stamps and any other kind of welfare assistance. List of the ONLY food items that can be bought and not alcohol, soda pop, lobster, cigarettes, etc. Go back to allowing single?? mothers 2 yrs. of education preparing them for work and their 1 child or 2 children care while she studiously studies. This is what needs to be done to get many off their behinds and buying large TVs, new cars, luxury items that many with jobs cannot afford without savings. Time to drain this swamp as well. Truly disabled men and women should continue to get food stamps but with the same provisos against certain items. Everyone else is open to scrutiny for any kind of assistance. NO food stamps or welfare of any kind to invaders on our soils, but only for VALID citizens with proof of citizenship. I am tired of seeing what they are buying on my taxes at Walmart, Best Buy, supermarkets, etc. We need money for those who truly need assistance.
It’s about time Congress overhauls the foods stamp program.
It should have been done a long time ago.It should have been privatized in the beginning.
The welfare program should be overhauled too. Republican’s are sticking to their platform, Less government, less taxes, and less regulation.
Here I go again as my comment “erased”. Only the truly disabled male or female be allowed food stamps with no allowance for buying alcohol, cigarettes, soda pop, toys, TVs, cars, etc. No food stamps for females except for having 1 or 2 children and no father, and any more then better get that father to take care of them. Allow single mothers/fathers to take a 2 yr. junior college study to become educated enough to work and provide child care for them but that would stop if they drop out of the program. Photo IDs and fingerprint on the IDs, and drug testing needed as well. I am tired of seeing what they buy at Walmarts, supermarkets, department stores on my money! Definitely if capable of work, then they must work and NO food stamps, no WIC, no EBT, etc. and definitely NO invaders on our soil leeching off of us.
To Rosech–A-man.. and those women that won’t work and just go around having more babies by different fathers just to get more welfare money ought to be neutered, as well as the lazy b——s that shack up with them, refusing to get a job or get married, cut their balls off. Give them a reason to be disabled all the time. Disabled my ass, it’s just an excuse to lay around and draw aid, smoking cigarettes and drinking beer at my expense. They call me stupid and say “mind your own business”, I can’t wait to leave this world, I’m sick of it.
Good comments. Congress doesn’t know anything about the poor or how to really help them. They need to talk to those who work with the poor and follow their advice.
2 yr. junior college ? So you buy into the “progressive” bullshit that indoctrination….or what they call getting an education will make jobs magically appear? Ever dawn on you idiots that thinks collage solves all work finding problems that not everybody is smart enough or has a desire to learn the useless crap pushed in collages these days?
Ever hear of technical or vocational training? Do all you collage pushing dumb asses really think a janitor, construction labourer, maid, landscaper or any number of other jobs that used to pay a decent wage before we were overran with illegal job stealing scum need a degree?
I’ll agree something really needs to be done about the amount of fraud and having babies meaning instant food stamps as well as other free shit. But to do this the first thing would be to say to hell with the children even if not at fault. I don’t see this happening and to a point have to agree that trying to be sure children are feed is a good thing.
Drug testing should be a given as most places demand it for a job these days so freebies shouldn’t be any different….but again the children will suffer or did you plan on taking them in? Not all of them but will you take as many as you can?
Illegal invaders are a major problem and the first thing to fix that is change the law on who is a citizen, even if it means changing the constitution. Anchor babies get the food stamps because if born on US soil they are citizens even if the illegal law breaking scum get the goodies for it.
But again it’s all about “the children”. Are you so evil you want children to starve? After the progressives feeding the whole children are so important thing for so man years how could you hate on children? Think about it.
74 BILLION? CUT THE COMPLETE PROGRAM, GET A JOB AN BE PROUD
There is abuse and waste. Additionally, recipients sell stamps to buy items that are not allowed.Illegals should not be allowed into the program.
According to food stamp policy, i make $5 to much to even get any consideration. If i do get any at all, i get a measily $16 a month !:Gimme a break !
My mother is 83 years old, lives on a little over $1,000.00 a month and all she can get is $10.00 in food stamps. She pays all her own bills. She cannot afford insurance of any kind, so we help her as much as we can. I bought her a car this year as hers was shot. I also supply her auto insurance and health items as well as some food. I’m not griping as we should do this for our elderly people. But to bring someone into our country and give them free housing, food medical and a cash allowance to boot, just gripes my ass. And they won’t even worship the very God that blesses me to pay the taxes that lets them live their unjust life style. Well if every body who pays taxes refused to pay them for a couple of years; wonder if those refugees would keep coming? Yet they won’t and that’s the very reason Obama is bring a hundred and ten thousand more. Because he can and no one will do any thing about it. Where’s Ed Anger when you need him?
First off it does need reformed and the problem is enforcing it. About 20yrs ago they reformed it to where the max amount of time you could be on welfare/food stamps was 5yrs and you had to show proof you were submitting applications for places of work or you had to be going to school. Sounded really good but it is not enforced and now their are so many people out of the workforce jobs are hard to find.
I feel anyone that is capable of working but can’t find a job then they work for the cities and counties doing trash pick up, cleaning graffiti off the walls of buildings and weed whacking blatant areas and clean up run down neighborhoods. once you are on welfare you are only allotted so much money and if you have any more kids then that is your responsibility to figure something out how to make ends meet.
The bad thing is if they start cutting the people on welfare now then the criminal acts will sky rocket because of needing money and they can’t find work or flat out don’t want to work. Seems to be a no win situation either way.
There was never a limit of 5 years on Food Stamps. The 5 year limit was on the TANF program (welfare) called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. I used to work in the Welfare Dept. and the 5 year limit was a joke because there were so many exceptions. Also, if the household was not allowed TANF after 5 years, the children in the household still got benefits (only the parent was excluded). If they had section 8 housing, their rent was based on the family income, so as the welfare amount decreased, the rent amount decreased. Food Stamps are not just received by TANF families, but by families where the parent or parents work but do not make enough money to cover their basic expenses. Those families will need and should receive food stamps as long as they qualify. They are trying and they are working.
The whole working for cities or counties sounds great in theory, but in reality has way too many flaws to work. I’ve seen this first hand having run into hard times some years ago.
First is minimum wage. Are you saying because someone who through no fault of their own loses a job, has kids to feed and basically just needs some help before they can find work should be forced into slave labor for the state?
Second and the most important flaw is the public employee union member paid way over the minimum wage to sit on their ass and oversee the slave labor. As I said I’ve seen it first hand.
As great as it sounds in theory it gets abused when put into practice so if you were to put these people to work and have them earn the benefits, which would be great as well as a very wise thing to do, you need to give them a job doing these things for the city, county or state at the very least minimum wage.
The public employee unions will not allow this, unless of course all these people can join the union which will mean more benefits, higher wages and the system breaking down because it is unaffordable.
Do I have an answer? No, but I’m not running for office saying I do. Maybe the key is electing people at the local level and seeing to it they either do the job and fix issues or their fired. It’s a place to start anyway.
No food stamps for illegal immigrants.
Im 77 years old and all I get is16.00 a month
Your Illegal NO Food stamps.
U have 7 kids & illegal, No EBT
Cut & downsize EBT alone nationwide
ID Fraud EBT sources or issue fake EBT cards alone, esp So CA area,
ARREST Obama to NDAA Prison for Usurpation of Office by illegal alien enemy combatant infiltrator and TREASON, murder, inciting riots, ETC.
Stop 100% all ALL federal welfare programs for all people and all politicians and all corporations. States and churches and individuals always did a good job of assistant truly needy people, and it worked great without government corruption and entitlement propaganda to recruit people to be on welfare and vote Democommie for life.
my aunt got commodities back in the 50’s, she was a single mom with 4 children, she did have a job but it didn’t pay enough for all their needs. so the commodities really helped out. they got stuff like flour and cornmeal, powdered milk, cheese, rice ,beans and a few other things once a month, nothing fancy just good food. the thing is they all had to be cooked and i think that was a good thing, its healthier to eat home cooked food. and they had the best cheese i ever ate. my cousins didn’t like cheese so they gave some of it to us a couple of times.
i think they should go back to that way.
Their is a 35 year old woman that is single that lives next door to me that smokes and has people stopping by all hours
of night and are there ten minutes or so.
She does not work and receives food stamps and a Obama phone to I suspect to connect with all cars stopping.
I can’t wait to see when Trump stops all the free stuff on the left.
theres more to say some other time
In 1973-74, I worked full-time, did not receive child support, and qualified for food stamps. My allotment was $119 for a family of four. I had to pay $109 for the stamps, so was only getting $10 free stamps. Most months, I couldn’t even afford to buy them, as I never had that much money. I believe people now get them free, so that doesn’t mean much to them. But if they had to pay at least half the cost of what they get, they would place more value on what they get.