House Speaker Kevin McCarthy agreed in debt limit negotiations with President Biden to exempt able-bodied veterans and homeless Americans from a 90-day limit on SNAP benefits, said two White House officials. But the agreement also applies the 90-day limit to so-called ABAWDS — able-bodied adults without dependents — up to age 55; the cutoff age is 50 now.
The overall effect of the revisions is to “actually reduce the number of vulnerable people who are subject to SNAP work requirements,” said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity over the weekend.
“While the new exemptions are positive, improvements for some don’t justify expanding to others a failed policy that will increase and deepen poverty,” responded Sharon Parrott, head of the think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “The agreement puts hundreds of thousands of older adults aged 50-54 at risk of losing food assistance, including a large number of women.”
The House could vote on the debt-and-budget package as early as Wednesday, with a Senate vote to follow later in the week.
Although the legislation handles SNAP, the paramount issue that slowed passage of the 2014 and 2018 farm bills, it does not guarantee a clear path for the 2023 farm bill. House Agriculture chairman Glenn Thompson said a month ago that it “remains to be seen” if other changes are needed in SNAP. Arkansas Sen. John Boozman, the senior Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee, said SNAP “very definitely” would be a farm bill issue. “It’s the vast majority of the farm bill.” About $4 of every $5 in the farm bill goes to SNAP.
The 1996 welfare reform law created the 90-day limit in a three-year period, also called a work requirement, on food stamps for ABAWDs ages 18-50 unless they work at least 80 hours a month, perform workfare or are enrolled in a job training program. SNAP also has a general requirement for recipients who are not elderly, disabled or children to look for work and accept a suitable job if offered.
House Republican leaders, including McCarthy, said the debt agreement would “achieve consequential work requirements to welfare programs to lift Americans out of poverty and grow the economy.”
Estimates were not immediately available of how many people would be affected by the changes in SNAP rules. The Center on Budget recently said around 1 million people would be at risk of losing SNAP benefits under the GOP’s “harsh work-reporting requirement.”
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on social media there “would be an important expansion of food assistance for Americans who are homeless and housing insecure” under the debt bill and USDA would work with the Veterans Affairs Department “to make sure veterans throughout our nation do not go hungry.” Housing Secretary Marcia Fudge hailed “the first-ever exemption to SNAP time limits for homeless individuals” and Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough said the exemption for veterans would make food assistance more broadly available to veterans.
The 99-page debt-and-budget bill would phase-in the ABAWD age limit, raising it to age 51 this fiscal year, age 53 in fiscal 2024 and age 55 in fiscal 2025. The higher age limits would take effect 90 days after enactment of the debt bill and sunset in fiscal 2030.
Also exempt from the 90-day limit on SNAP benefits would be people ages 24 or younger who “aged out” of the foster care systems.
In addition, states could not issue discretionary exemptions from the 90-day limit to more than 8 percent of their SNAP caseload in the future; they can waive the time limit for 12 percent of recipients at present. And states would be barred in rolling over from year to year any unused discretionary waivers.
The legislation also would include among SNAP goals “a purpose to assist low-income adults in obtaining employment and increasing their earnings.”
“Cutting off food for people unless they document sufficient hours does not improve their chances to secure family-sustaining wages, but does increase their food hardship,” said the antihunger Food Research and Action Center. It said Congress should eliminate the time limit altogether.
Text of the debt and budget bill is available here. The language on SNAP is on pages 67-71.