The White House proposed a $19-billion cut in food stamps for the fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1, achieving the 25-percent reduction in SNAP mainly by putting forward, once again, “America’s Harvest Box” of canned and nonperishable food. The administration also proposed on Monday to apply SNAP work requirements more broadly and to include older Americans in them. Both ideas were rejected last year by lawmakers.
In addition, the fiscal 2020 budget would reduce eligibility for SNAP by changing so-called categorical eligibility. “Cat El” says participants of welfare programs automatically will be considered for food stamps. Separate from the budget, the administration is working on regulatory changes to Cat El to restrict access to benefits and has proposed stricter enforcement of the 90-day limit on food stamps for able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs) who work less than 20 hours a week. The 90-day limit was set as part of welfare reform in 1996.
Jim Weill, head of the anti-hunger Food Research and Action Center, said President Trump was attempting an end-run around Congress by repeating ideas that were rejected in the 2018 farm policy law. The food stamp cuts would total $220 billion over a decade, he said. “Such astronomical cuts will not only increase hunger and poverty, but will worsen health outcomes, decrease the ability of children to do well in school, and lower productivity, all of which will exact a heavy toll on the American economy.”
Acting White House budget director Russell Vought said criticism of the Harvest Box, a brainchild of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, was without merit. “We’re not going to walk away from the proposal,” he said. The administration says it can save billions of dollars annually through with the Harvest Box by buying food in bulk and delivering a boxful of U.S.-grown staple foods each month to SNAP households. The box would replace half of recipients’ benefits, now roughly $126 per month per person. The rest of benefits would remain available to buy food at grocery stores. Four of every 5 households, those receiving more than $90 a month, would be part of the Harvest Box program.
“In terms of work requirements, it’s something that has long been viewed as a success since the 1990s. We expand on it,” Vought told reporters. Able-bodied adults ages 18-65 would be required to work at least 20 hours a week, be enrolled in job training or perform community service to receive food stamps.
At present, ABAWDs ages 18-49 are limited to three months of benefits in a three-year period unless they satisfy those standards. The general rule for SNAP is that adults ages 18-59 are required to register for work and accept appropriate employment if offered. House Republicans proposed during the farm bill debate last year to require able-bodied adults ages 18-59, including those with school-age children, to meet the 20-hour work requirement, but the highly controversial proposal was rejected by Democrats and withdrawn once they won the majority in the House.
“President Trump’s budget is fiscally conservative and lays out a vision for an accountable federal government that cuts spending,” said Perdue. “At the same time, we will maintain a safety net for farmers, ranchers, foresters, producers, and people who need assistance in feeding their families.”
But Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, the senior Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee said: “I strongly oppose actions that undermine the bipartisan Farm Bill and I will lead the bipartisan effort to ensure Congress rejects this budget, just as we have done in the previous proposals.” House Agriculture chairman Collin Peterson, a Minnesota Democrat, said “the good news is this budget is going nowhere in Congress.”
The Harvest Box would save $11.6 billion, work requirements would save $4.1 billion and changes in Cat El would save $1.4 billion in fiscal 2020, according to USDA’s budget summary. An array of other cuts, including elimination of the minimum SNAP payment and setting a six-person maximum benefit per household, would raise the total to $19 billion.
FRAC said the administration also would change the rules for the Community Eligibility Provision, which allows schools in high-poverty neighborhoods to serve school meals at no charge to all students. It would require every school to meet the “identified student threshold” for CEP, whether it is part of a group of schools participating in CEP or is participating on its own.