Congress ought to focus on the “N” – nutrition – in SNAP rather than pursue stricter work requirements on food stamp recipients, said former agriculture secretary Dan Glickman, in remarks aimed at House Republican farm bill proposals. “Myself, I think nothing’s perfect. SNAP works pretty well,” said Glickman. “So we should not be using SNAP to conduct some sort of major welfare reform, when I don’t think we need it.”
Meanwhile, the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, Michael Conaway of Texas, indicated he could seek a vote on his version of the bill in mid-April. Conaway has not released his draft. Documents released by Democratic staff workers say Conaway’s proposals would reduce enrollment by 3 percent, subject more people to a 90-day limit on benefits, and require states to transform the small “education and training” adjunct of SNAP into a bureaucracy handling 3-5 million people at a time.
As agriculture secretary during the Clinton era, Glickman oversaw SNAP. He has remained active in food and ag issues since leaving USDA and was a co-leader of a Bipartisan Policy Center task force that recommended, in early March, banning purchase of sugar-sweetened beverages – soda – with food stamps. The task force also recommended more incentives in SNAP for purchase of fruits and vegetables, more nutrition education, and coordination of SNAP and Medicaid.
“I do think the ‘N’ in SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) needs to be reinforced,” Glickman said during a luncheon speech at a Consumer Federation of America conference. “It’s not just a quantity (of food) program, it’s a quality of nutrition program. We need to focus on that much more than anything else…We should be focusing much less on issues like work requirements.”
SNAP is the largest element of the farm bill and costs around $70 billion a year. Abut 41.2 million people were enrolled at latest count, well below the record 47.6 million people during 2013, when conservative House Republicans said $80 billion in benefits were too great a burden on middle-class taxpayers. Conservatives say enrollment remains too high, considering jobless rates are low.
States have not pressed hard enough for SNAP recipients to work nor done enough to train them for better-paying or higher-skilled jobs, according to Conaway. Able-bodied adults without dependents are limited to 90 days of benefits in a three-year period unless they work at least 20 hours a week or spend equivalent time in job training or workfare. Only five states guarantee recipients a job training slot if they are jeopardized by the 90-day limit. Conaway would require states to offer a slot to everyone at risk of losing benefits because they don’t work enough hours a week.
If enrollment drops by 1 million people under his proposal, as Democrats say it will, that’s because people got better jobs or decided not to bother with job training, Conaway said on the “Adams on Agriculture” radio program. Conaway said he would not cut SNAP funding or remove people involuntarily from the program.
“We’ll get the language out as soon as we get the April 9 baseline, official, from CBO,” said Conaway. If there are no glitches on cost estimates, “we’ll kick the language out and go to committee pretty quickly.”
By tradition, farm bills are bipartisan legislation so the impasse between Conaway and Democrats on his committee is unusual. Some analysts say Congress is unlikely to pass major legislation in time remaining before the mid-term elections in November because of bitter partisan feelings in Congress.
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signed a law to require SNAP recipients statewide to work 20 hours a week unless they are children, pregnant, elderly, disabled or military veterans, said Associated Press on Tuesday. At present, 46 of the state’s 55 counties have a waiver from the work requirement. Under the new law, waivers will be allowed after October 1 only in counties where the 12-month unemployment rate is above 10 percent. After three years, no waivers would be allowed.
Anti-hunger activists say the vast majority of food stamp recipients subject to the 90-day limit are employed but many work in jobs with erratic schedules so it is hard to be certain of meeting USDA’s target.
Sam Adolphsen of the Foundation for Government Accountability said Conaway wants to get able-bodied people “back to work…That is great news because American employers are desperate for workers and we need those individuals to move from welfare to work – and an expanded work requirement is proven to do just that.”
To read the Bipartisan Policy Center report, “Leading with nutrition: Leveraging federal programs for better health,” or to watch a video of the panel discussion that was held when the report was released, click here.