Bill on food stamps clears House panel

Parents who pay child support would also have to stay up to date on their payments.

Bills to expand the state food stamp program’s work requirement, require recipients to cooperate in child-support collection efforts and bar them from using their benefits to buy certain kinds of junk food cleared a House committee on Tuesday.

House Bill 1775, sponsored by Rep. Mary Bentley, R-Perryville, would make an education and training program mandatory for about 50,000 food stamp recipients: those age 50-60 and those who have dependent children who are all at least 6 years old.

Those recipients are now exempt from the program’s requirement to work at least 80 hours a month on work or other approved activities or participate in the education and training program.

House Bill 1731, sponsored by Rep. Grant Hodges, R-Rogers, would disqualify from the program parents who refuse to cooperate with the state in establishing paternity of a child and seeking a court order for child support.

Parents who pay child support would also have to stay up to date on their payments.

House Bill 1743, also sponsored by Bentley, would bar participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, as the food stamp program is formally known, from using their benefits to buy candy, soft drinks, energy drinks or dietary supplements.

Proponents of HB1775 and HB1731 told the House Committee on Public Health, Welfare and Labor that those bills would help move food stamp recipients out of poverty, while HB1743’s supporters said it would make them healthier and reduce the number of Arkansans who are considered obese or overweight.

Tomiko Townley, advocacy director for the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance, spoke against all three bills.

She said HB1775 and HB1731 would cause families to lose food stamp benefits, while HB1743 would pose challenges for the recipients as well as grocery stores.

“Obesity rates in the state are a problem, but not a SNAP participant problem,” she said.