Reviving a White House budget theme, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said Americans do not believe food stamps should be “a permanent lifestyle” for able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs) and said Congress should clamp down on waivers that allow states to provide benefits beyond the usual 90-day limit for them. “I think that is a provision that would not be totally disruptive” to passage of the 2018 farm bill, Perdue said at a National Press Club luncheon.
“One of the things that I think you’ll see is a change regarding the ability of able-bodied adults without dependents to rely on food stamps continually,” said Perdue in discussing potential changes in social supports. He said that “by and large, a bipartisan group of people” support stricter limits on food stamps for ABAWDs.
Perdue, referring to waiver requests from states, appeared to cite a White House proposal from May to restrict state use of waivers. “If you’re able-bodied and able to work, we need you to go to work,” said Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney at the time.
At present, ABAWDs are limited to 90 days of food stamps in a three-year period unless they live in a state that has requested a waiver because of high unemployment. As part of its fiscal 2018 budget proposal, the administration said waivers should be allowed only in counties where annual jobless rates exceed 10 percent. The provision was part of a proposed 25 percent cut in food stamp funding over a decade, coupled with a requirement that states pick up 20 percent of the cost of the program.
Food stamps are the largest U.S. anti-hunger program and help poor people buy food. Some 42 million Americans were enrolled in the program at latest count. The program cost $68 billion in fiscal 2017, down from the record $80 billion in fiscal 2013, during the slow recovery from the 2008-09 recession and when the 2014 farm bill was being debated. Critics said the program cost more than middle-class taxpayers should have to pay.
The House defeated a farm bill for the first time ever in 2013 when conservative Republicans demanded the largest cuts in food stamps since welfare reform in the mid-1990s. Among the provisions backed by House conservatives was a crackdown on benefits to ABAWDs. Food stamp defenders, such as Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern, have vowed to fight cuts in food stamps in the 2018 farm bill.
The 90-day limit on food stamps for ABAWDs is currently in effect in two-thirds of the country, said one analyst, who suggested that perhaps 1 million ABAWDs were covered by state waivers.
“There is no evidence that SNAP [food stamp] receipt discourages unemployed adults without children from seeking employment,” said the think tank Center for Budget and Policy Priorities in a March report. “As noted above, many are likely receiving SNAP because they would like to work but face barriers to work. … For this population who are not working at least 20 hours a week, SNAP provides less than $5 a day — it is hard to imagine these individuals would forgo earnings in order to remain eligible for SNAP.”
ABAWDs who work at least 80 hours a month or who spend an equal amount of time in workfare or job training programs can receive food stamps with no time limit.
House Agriculture chairman Michael Conaway has said he wants “meaningful reforms” in food stamps that include stricter work requirements.