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[19659002] Rich Pedroncelli / AP photo
The Ministry of Agriculture on Thursday proposed a rule to more strictly enforce existing work requirements regarding more recipients of food stamps. limiting the ability of states to remove time restrictions.
The publication of the rule comes the same day that President Donald Trump should sign the Farm Bill – and the timing is not a coincidence.
The proposal, which was originally to be made public before the mid-term elections, is the administration's response to House Republicans' concessions at home regarding food stamps in the bill. final. I am not asking for more stringent work requirements or tightening the eligibility criteria for the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, which accounts for more than three-quarters of agricultural spending.
Secretary of the White House and Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, supported the House of Republicans' efforts to reorganize CPAWS. Trump used his Twitter platform to push for tougher work demands, even late in conference negotiations, where food stamps were a major blocking point.
In the end, the farm bill removed all controversial SNAP proposals from the GOP of the House and left out the efforts of the Senate leaders responsible for agriculture that could have blocked the action of the USDA regulation.
The USDA's proposal targets a group of SNAP participants deemed to be empowered – adults without dependents, or ABAWD, which includes beneficiaries aged 18 to 49 who are not disabled or who are not. 39 do not take care of children or other dependents. In 2016, they accounted for a small slice, 3.8 million, of nearly 40 million Americans who receive SNAP benefits to help them buy groceries.
Under current law, ABAWD can not receive food stamps for more than three months. a period of three years unless they work or are enrolled in an education and training program for at least 80 hours a month. However, states may waive this deadline when the unemployment rate is high or there are not enough jobs available – an opportunity that was widely used during the Great Recession.
"[[N] early half of the SNAP-receiving ABAWD are now living in abandoned areas, despite the economic boom and the low unemployment rate," said the USDA in a paper explaining its proposal. "According to the ministry, the exemptions are intended to provide temporary relief to the time limit, while areas are facing poor economic conditions and should be used accordingly."
The proposed rule would tighten the criteria that states must meet in any USDA waiver application and is expected to save an estimated $ 15 billion over a decade, Brandon Lipps, director of the USDA. USA Food and Nutrition. Service, told reporters.
About 74% of the ABAWD population, about 2.8 million people, do not work. This figure is followed by the states, according to the ministry. It is estimated that 755,000 of these people would lose the benefits of SNAP over three years if the USDA proposal were implemented. Lipps said the number of regions across the country with waivers would decrease by 75%.
Currently, 36 states and territories waive the expiry of the deadline for at least part of their ABAWD population. Seven states benefit from state-wide exemptions, including Alaska, Louisiana, New Mexico and the District of Columbia.
California, Florida, Texas and New York benefit from a partial exemption. They are the four most populous states and also have the largest populations of ABAWD. In 2016, the USDA estimated that there were 570,000 ABAWD enjoying SNAP benefits in California.
The proposal makes several major changes to the criteria used to determine whether a state or region qualifies for a CPAWS exemption. States have some means to qualify: their unemployment rate can be higher than 10% or they can demonstrate that they do not have a sufficient number of positions.
Lipps said the shortage of jobs was inadequate. in a zone is justified, and this allows the application of derogations for states or regions where the unemployment rate is as low as 4%. The USDA plan would set a firm unemployment rate of 7 percent, said Lipps.
Most states seek exemptions in areas where the unemployment rate is 20% higher than the national average. This was common after the 2008 financial crisis, but the unemployment rate is now close to the all-time low at 3.7%.
The USDA proposal would also limit "carryover exemptions". States can exempt up to 15% of their workload from SNAP deadlines, a mechanism that can be used to extend ABAWD eligibility.
Few states take full advantage of these 15% exemptions from the number of cases. States are not obliged to use all of these exemptions in one year, but can accumulate them indefinitely.
California, for example, has "stored" 800,000 exemptions, Lipps said. The USDA wants to limit the carryover allowance to just one year.
Another proposed change would allow states to request exemptions for a period of one year instead of two. In addition, the USDA wants to ensure that partial state exemptions are only granted in regions that are "economically linked," Lipps said, in order to prevent states from "gerrymandering" all parts of the state to meet the eligibility criteria.
The USDA stated that the proposal would not affect as many SNAP participants as the House's GOP Farm Bill. Nevertheless, anti-hunger groups will probably describe the Trump government's proposal as too harsh for low-income families.
Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Member of the Senate Agriculture Rank, said in a statement that the USDA's proposal "outright ignores" the compromise farm bill heading to Trump's office, as well as over 20 years of history, offering states the opportunity to seek waivers based on local working conditions.
"I expect the rule to face significant opposition and court challenges," Stabenow said. "Administrative changes must not be dictated by ideology. I do not support unilateral and unjustified changes that would take food away from families. "
House House chairman Mike Conaway (R-Texas) said in a statement that the USDA proposal would ensure the preservation of waivers from communities that really needed it.
" Associate to the modernized programming of the Agricultural Law [education and training] and increased investment, this proposed rule will allow ABAWD to seek new opportunities and achieve their goals, "said Conaway.
The L & # 39; USDA plans to take into account comments on the proposal for 60 days
Helena Bottemiller Evich contributed to this article
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