Before leaving Washington for the holidays, more than a dozen House Democrats stood in front of the USDA headquarters on the Mall to register their opposition to Trump administration regulations that would eliminate food stamps for 3.7 million people. Rules Committee chairman Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, one of the foremost defenders of SNAP, raised the possibility of a congressional lawsuit against the cuts.
Trump appointees are “working to make hunger worse, not better,” said McGovern, who pointed to language adopted as part of House operating rules last January that instructed House lawyers to explore legal options to block SNAP cuts. “We are going to see these people in court,” said McGovern.
“They don’t believe the poor deserve to eat,” said Rep. Karen Bass of California, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. Rep Gwen Moore of Wisconsin said the administration was wrong in saying tighter eligibility rules would move SNAP recipients into work or upward to better-paying jobs. “There are no data to support that hungry people are more employable,” she said.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue acted under his own authority to restrict SNAP benefits after Congress rejected broader and stricter SNAP rules during work on the 2018 farm bill. Low unemployment rates and an economic boom are ideal conditions for government to encourage people to join the workforce, says Perdue.
The administration is pursuing three changes in SNAP rules. The first, which was issued on Dec. 4, would more stringently enforce the 90-day limit on food stamps for able-bodied adults unless they work at least 20 hours a week. The 1996 welfare reform law set the limit of 90 days of benefits in a three-year period for so-called able-bodied adults without dependents. The ABAWD rule affects 688,000 SNAP recipients. Also proposed by the administration are a rule to restrict the use of “categorical eligibility,” which allows states to modify asset tests and income limits so people who receive social services can be considered for SNAP and a rule to change the formula for calculating utility costs, a factor in determining SNAP benefits.