The Trump administration is pressing for additional work requirements for people receiving food stamps from the government.
In a four-page document released Wednesday, the Department of Agriculture made several suggestions for farm bill legislation being crafted in Congress, writing that it supports “work as the pathway to self-sufficiency, well-being, and economic mobility for individuals and families receiving supplemental nutrition assistance.” The program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, was formerly known as food stamps and covers 45.6 million people.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue elaborated on the recommendations in a Wednesday event in Pennsylvania with reporters, according to Bloomberg.
“It’s evident that there are able-bodied adults without dependents who are on the food stamp program, who we believe it is in their best interests, and their families’ best interests, to move into an independent lifestyle,” he said. “During the last downturn, it became a lifestyle for some people. We don’t want it to become permanent.”
Work requirements are seen as one way to save money on the farm bill, which authorizes spending on SNAP. Most of the farm bill’s costs goes toward nutrition programs, including SNAP.
The Department of Agriculture reported in 2015 that 57 percent of adults on nutrition assistance, who were working age, had a job or were looking for one. Twenty-two percent reported they did not work because they were disabled.
States currently can implement work requirements on residents receiving SNAP assistance. The result has typically been that people fall off the program.
The Trump administration recently released guidelines to allow states to implement work requirements for Medicaid enrollees as a condition of being enrolled in the program, citing SNAP as an example of other programs that had similar provisions.
