Attorneys general in D.C., New York City, and 14 states filed suit against the Trump administration on Thursday in an attempt to block a plan to impose stricter work requirements on millions of food stamp recipients.
The suit alleges that a rule from the Department of Agriculture will unlawfully restrict states from providing food stamps to jobless residents. The regulation ends states’ discretion to waive work requirements in certain areas, a shift expected to cut $5.5 billion from food stamp spending over five years.
Finalized in December, the changes will take effect in April and are expected to kick nearly 700,000 adults from the program. Under current rules, eligible participants are not supposed to receive benefits for more than three months over a three-year period unless they are employed or in school for more than 20 hours a week.
“States are in the best position to evaluate local economic circumstances and to determine where there are insufficient job opportunities such that work requirements would be ineffective,” says the 99-page suit. Filed Thursday in federal court in Washington, the suit alleges that the new rule “eliminates state discretion and criteria.”
This is the first of three such measures planned to limit federal food aid.
President Trump has overseen a contraction of food stamp rolls by millions even before the new rules take effect. In an end-of-year accounting of Trump’s accomplishments, the administration touted “7 million Americans lifted off of food stamps” and credited the “booming economy.”
Congress agreed not to include food stamp program changes in the 2018 farm bill after Democrats unanimously opposed a GOP overhaul of the program that would have reduced the number of recipients. “After a rocky start, I’m just proud to turn a partisan bill into a bipartisan bill,” Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota said at the time.
