According to Gov. Scott Walker, “Wisconsin continues to lead the way on welfare reform,” including legislation that requires more of its residents to work more hours per week, or spend more time in job training, to receive food stamps for more than 90 days. The state’s Senate gave final approval this week to Walker-backed bills that toughen the work requirement and deny food stamps to owners of houses worth more than $321,000 or cars worth more than $20,000.
“These reforms will help people move from government dependence to true independence through the dignity that comes with work,” said Walker, who said public assistance “should be a trampoline, not a hammock.”
Wisconsin legislators passed a bill that requires unemployed people to take part in job training for 30 hours a week, up from the current 20 hours, to qualify for more than three months of food stamps in a three-year period. Since 1971, the three-month limit has applied to able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs). The Walker package would include able-bodied adults with school-age children, a step that would increase the number of people subject to the 90-day limit.
The new Wisconsin rules would be more stringent than those generally set for food stamp recipients across the country. On Feb. 12, the Trump administration proposed tighter eligibility standards that would cut food stamp enrollment nationwide by 10 percent, or 4 million people. By one estimate, more than a million of those people would lose benefits because the administration would reduce the power of states to waive the 90-day limit during periods of high unemployment or when jobs are not available. The White House would also increase the age span of ABAWDs covered by the time limit to ages 18 to 62. Currently, the rule covers ABAWDs from 18 to 49 years old.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has said that while the government should help “those truly in need” to get enough to eat, it should also “support work as the pathway to self-sufficiency, well-being, and economic mobility.” House Agriculture chairman Michael Conaway has a declared goal of making “meaningful reforms” in food stamps, particularly in work requirements, part of the 2018 farm bill.
Only five states — Colorado, Delaware, South Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin — offered a slot in a workfare or job-training program in 2016 to all ABAWDs at risk of losing benefits because of the 90-day limit, reported the USDA in January. The anti-hunger group Bread for the World says, “Work requirements do not decrease need or hunger.”
According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, roughly 70,000 adults have enrolled in the FoodShare Employment and Training Program since April 2015, and slightly more than 25,000 of them gained employment between April 2015 and the end of 2017. FoodShare is Wisconsin’s version of the food stamp program.
Wisconsin state senators did not vote on a Walker proposal to require photos on FoodShare benefit cards, said the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. It said the new limits on food stamps “would likely lead to fewer benefits being paid out and some potential savings for federal taxpayers.” The newspaper cited state agency estimates that Walker’s social welfare overhaul could cost $86 million a year. “Critics say the money would be better spent on worker training and public transportation, while supporters say the welfare limits would help get more people into the workforce at a time when unemployment is at the historic low of 3 percent.”
“Both proponents and opponents of the overhaul say they believe the Wisconsin plan will serve as a blueprint for other states looking to reform their welfare programs. Maine and Nebraska have already implemented similar plans, and Republican governors in other states have suggested welfare reform is on their agendas,” said The Hill newspaper.
Since 2015, Walker has pressed for the drug testing of food-stamp recipients, though he did not request a waiver from the USDA. State officials told The New Food Economy that they would include drug testing as part of an overall state plan to be submitted to the agency.