President Trump signed an executive order Tuesday promoting work requirements for safety-net programs, a change most likely to affect Medicaid, food stamps and housing benefits.
“Welfare reform is necessary to prosperity and independence,” said Andrew Bremberg, the White House director of the Domestic Policy Council.
The order would encourage agencies to strengthen work requirements for people who are able to work. As with previous broad orders signed by Trump, it calls for agencies to review all work requirements and report back, setting up possible changes in regulations.
Bremberg said that the order is meant to ensure that people in need continue to receive assistance while eliminating the “stagnation” created by government dependency.
Despite low unemployment rates, “our country still struggles from nearly record high welfare enrollments,” he noted.
House Speaker Paul Ryan has long advocated for overhauling the nation’s welfare system to promote work. While major legislation is unlikely this Congress, much of the conservative agenda could be carried out administratively by Trump.
Trump has spoken about safety net programs in the kind of stark language usually avoided by congressional Republicans, suggesting that too many people are taking advantage of benefits.
While most government programs, including cash welfare, include work requirements, conservatives have argued that the requirements are too loose, especially for able-bodied workers.
In particular, they blame former President Barack Obama for allowing many states to waive some food stamp requirements for able-bodied adults during the recession. They also fault him for expanding Medicaid, the low-income health insurance program, to able-bodied adults without work requirements.
Several states have imposed work and training requirements for some of their Medicaid enrollees after Trump opened the door in January.
Congressional Democrats have fought GOP attempts to impose work requirements, casting it as an effort to punish poor people. The two parties currently are clashing over adding work requirements for food stamps in the upcoming Farm Bill.
