One in six of the older Americans targeted by an expansion of SNAP work requirements lives in California, said the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities on Wednesday. The debt ceiling bill negotiated by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Biden would limit so-called ABAWDs — able-bodied adults without dependents — ages 50 to 55 to 90 days of food stamps in a three-year period unless they work at least 80 hours a month.
Center on Budget analysts estimated that 750,000 people would be at risk of losing benefits if the proposal becomes law. The 90-day limit was created by the 1996 welfare reform law and, at present, covers ABAWDs ages 18 to 50.
“Nearly half (48 percent) of those who would be newly at risk of losing benefits under this bill are women,” wrote analysts Katie Bergh and Dottie Rosenbaum. “The expansion of this requirement would take food assistance away from large numbers of people, including many who have serious barriers to employment as well as others who are working or should be exempt but are caught up in red tape.”
According to the think tank, 118,000 Californians would be at risk of losing benefits, followed by 47,000 Illinoisans, 45,000 New Yorkers, and 44,000 Floridians and Texans.
The bill also would remove the 90-day limit for military veterans, homeless people, and young adults who “aged out” of the foster care system. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated SNAP enrollment would grow by 78,000 because more people would benefit from the new exemptions than would lose access to food stamps.
“The CBO’s SNAP math is simply wrong,” Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee said on social media. “In fact, these groups have long been exempted by state-level waivers and exemptions.”
Sharon Parrott, head of the Center on Budget, said the CBO figures indicate that current policy “doesn’t work” and that the new exemptions would “protect a group of people in need from an ineffective and harmful policy that increases poverty and hunger.”