Require work for food stamps? NO: Don’t take food out of the mouths of the poor YES: End dependency — make work a priority for all

Job loss, medical emergencies and weather disasters can turn a family’s stability upside down. These sudden life events can quickly leave families hungry and desperate for food.

That’s why I’m concerned for many Central Floridians as well as millions of Americans who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, once referred to as food stamps.

The 2018 farm bill, known as the Agricultural and Nutrition Act of 2018, would impose strict and punitive work requirements on many Americans in desperate need of this food assistance.

This policy is heartless, or at the very least poorly considered. Nearly everyone ages 18-59 would be required to have a job within 30 days to get SNAP or continue receiving the help.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not disagreeing with the dignity that work provides — or requiring people who qualify for SNAP based on federal poverty-level guidelines to work.

The fact is that most people who receive SNAP benefits are already required to work: Able-bodied adults without children or other dependents must work or participate in a training program for 20 hours per week to keep their SNAP benefits longer than three months over a three-year period.

The farm bill would narrow eligibility even more.

Imagine a 30-year-old single mother working full time with two young children. If she unexpectedly loses her job, how would she pay bills and buy groceries? If she applies for SNAP, the farm bill would give her only 30 days to find a new job and qualify for food assistance. And if she doesn’t get a job within a month? She would be banned from SNAP for an entire year. The employment website Glassdoor says the average job-interview process alone takes more than 22 days. If this young mom doesn’t land a job from her very first interview, her family would be out of luck and on their own for groceries.

The same bleak prospect awaits Americans ages 55 to 59 who lose a job under the farm bill. No new job within 30 days? There’s no food help. As the AARP reports, the average jobsearch time for people that age is six months to a year.

Finally, consider the financial devastation of medical emergencies, which can short-circuit finances when many live paycheck to paycheck. It’s common for two-income households with children to qualify for SNAP because they still meet the poverty-level requirements. When one spouse is hospitalized and can’t work, the household income level drops, which would have made them eligible for SNAP. But under the new rules, a spouse on a prolonged medical recovery who could not work would not be considered legally disabled. There would be no SNAP benefits.

Simply put, the proposed work requirement is bad for America. The requirement is a veiled attempt to move toward eliminating the program altogether. Making prohibitive qualification rules would force millions away from the critical help the program provides. This would create millions of food insecure families looking for help. Studies have shown that food insecurity strains our education system, puts a greater burden on law enforcement, and continues the cycle of generational poverty.

We need a better plan to address the root causes of poverty in our country, and we also need reliable food assistance for our most vulnerable neighbors in their time of need. Washington is creating problems that don’t exist with one of America’s only safety nets. We should instead be engaged in vigorous investment and discussion about STEM education, job programs and entrepreneurship training on a national level.

Creating a thriving economy for all people is the true pathway to self-reliance, and that’s never going to be solved by simply taking food from the mouths of the poor.

Across the nation, there are 6 million open jobs, with employers desperately looking to fill them. It’s not because of a skills gap. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly threequarters of the job openings that will occur over the next decade require a high-school education or less. Nearly four of five job openings need no training or less than a month’s training on the job, while a whopping 87 percent require no prior experience. What’s causing this worker shortage? In part, it’s driven by the number of able-bodied Americans on welfare who aren’t working.

Despite a near record-low unemployment rate, we’re experiencing near record-high welfare enrollment. There are 21 million ablebodied adults trapped on food stamps, more than three times as many as 2000. These are working-age adults with no physical or mental disabilities — exactly the people employers are desperate to find to fill millions of open jobs.

As a nation, we’re spending more than five times the amount on these individuals as we did in 2000 — billions of tax dollars that could be going to priorities like better schools for our children, public safety, or to the truly needy. Instead, we’re pouring public funds into programs that keep able-bodied adults trapped in dependency rather than implementing policies that promote self-sufficiency.

Though federal law requires that some able-bodied adults on food stamps work, train or volunteer at least 20 hours per week to receive benefits, those requirements apply only to a small subset of able-bodied adults. Worse yet, many states have waived the requirements for enrollees altogether. As a result, just 8 percent of able-bodied adults on food stamps work full-time. Three in five don’t work at all.

Government continues to pay them not to work — so they don’t. It’s a sad fact, given how well we know work requirements can move able-bodied adults from welfare to work.

Work is the single best path out of dependency. When Kansas implemented work requirements for able-bodied, childless adults on food stamps, those who left welfare saw their incomes more than double on average and found work in more than 600 diverse industries. Their income continued to increase month after month and more than offset any lost benefits.

The power of work is clear — and voters realize it. That’s why nationwide, 90 percent of voters support work requirements for able-bodied adults on welfare.

This public support has come on the heels of states across the country implementing the common-sense reform with great success — and the federal government taking notice. Last month, President Trump issued an executive order directing federal agencies that oversee welfare programs to ensure that their rules and regulations promote work and economic mobility — especially for able-bodied adults. That same week, the House Committee on Agriculture released the 2018 farm bill, calling for expanded work requirements to more able-bodied adults, including middle-aged adults and parents.

That’s excellent news, given research that shows most of these adults aren’t working at all. We know from past state experience that work requirements have the same positive effect on parents that they have on childless adults — and because it’s critical that children grow up with the example of work around them, moving these adults back to work is essential to the future of our country.

Decades of welfare policies have trapped millions of adults in dependency, robbed of the opportunity to create a better future for themselves and their families. We’re finally starting to change that by unleashing the power of work.

Millions are robbed of the opportunity to create a better future for themselves and their families. This policy is heartless, or at the very least poorly considered.