Food stamp plan to hit poor in pro-Trump states
A House Republican plan to set stricter work rules for food stamp recipients would disproportionately affect low-income residents in states that supported Donald Trump for president and may imperil passage of farm legislation.
The work requirements are a priority for the president and are “something he will be encouraging,” White House legislative affairs director Marc Short said Wednesday.
The plan so far doesn’t have enough Republican votes to reach the House floor, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, a North Carolina Republican, said Thursday. House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, said he feels good about the bill but won’t give a timeline for when a vote may occur.
Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions, a Texas Republican, said he expects the farm bill containing the tougher work requirements to reach the House floor this week, with many amendments expected. The GOP is divided about how far the work rules should go as the party campaigns to keep its majorities in the House and Senate in November’s elections.
Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus want even stricter guidelines. The Senate, which needs to approve its own plan before negotiating with the House on a final package, is less likely to sign off on new work requirements.
The farm bill reauthorizes all U.S. Department of Agriculture programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, more commonly called food stamps. The plan sent to the House floor by the Agriculture Committee on a party-line vote last month would shift some money spent on benefits to workforce training.
House Agriculture Chairman Michael Conaway, a Texas Republican, and his Senate counterpart, Republican Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas, said last week they would meet with Trump. Conaway said he continues to seek support for his committee’s measure.
Republicans say the requirements are needed to move food stamp recipients into the labor force at a time of worker shortages. Democrats oppose those provisions because they’ll reduce benefits and increase paperwork requirements.
A Bloomberg analysis shows that 12.9 percent of residents of states that backed Trump in 2016 used food stamps in February, the most recent month for which data are available, compared with 11.4 percent in states won by Democrat Hillary Clinton. That amounts to 23.8 million people in Trump states compared with 16.2 million in Clinton territory.
Residents of non-metropolitan counties, which gave 66 percent of their votes to Trump in 2016, are 18 percent more likely to participate in the foodstamp program than citydwellers, according to a study by the Center for Rural Strategies in Whitesburg, Ky., which backs greater funding for antipoverty programs in rural areas.
The House measure would raise from 49 to 59 the age at which able-bodied adults would be required to work or participate in a training program for 20 hours a week. The plan also adds work requirements for households that include children 6 and older. Recipients between ages 18 and 59 with children above age 6 who don’t comply with the work requirement would lose an annual benefit of about $1,800 on average by 2028, according to the Congressional Budget Office.