Our country is witnessing an economic resurgence after the passage of tax reform last year. For the first time in recorded history, the number of jobs open is larger than the number of unemployed people. This is good for everyone, regardless of their position in life. For those who are unemployed, they will be able to find an employer with an available job. For those who are already employed, they will start seeing their wages rise as businesses compete for employees.
Yet despite these record numbers, the most vulnerable among us are still down on their luck. After spending more than $20 trillion in the War on Poverty, America has yet to conquer this adversary. Maybe that’s because the solution is not to simply throw money at the symptoms of poverty without addressing the root causes of the problem. As Arthur Brooks at the American Enterprise Institute writes, the War on Poverty “got the U.S. government into the business of treating people left behind by economic change as liabilities to manage rather than as human assets to develop.” The longer we refuse to recognize that these are men, women, parents, sons, and daughters with dreams and ambitions, we are destined to fail and keep millions of Americans in the cycle of poverty.
Congress has a chance to fix this problem as we consider government assistance programs. We have an opportunity to move these programs from just safety nets there to catch people when they fall to programs that help them climb out of poverty and live their American Dream. It’s a choice between either continuing the broken status quo or implementing reforms that have proven success like work requirements.
Even though there were nominal work requirements in law, the Obama administration allowed states to waive them over and over again for programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. This resulted in the rolls for this program growing by 50 percent since 2008 while the official poverty rate decreased over the same period. According to the Foundation for Government Accountability, nearly 13 million able bodied adults who are able to work but are not working are receiving food assistance. Instead of breaking them out of the cycle of poverty, for many of these people, the current program does just the opposite.
As the old saying goes, give someone a fish, feed them for a day, but teach someone to fish, you feed them for a lifetime. By enforcing work and job training requirements, we can reduce government dependency and end the cycle of poverty that traps too many Americans.
At this rare economic moment, Congress has before it the perfect time to make major headway in the War on Poverty by including work requirements in the Farm Bill this year. This is one of those issues that not only is it the right thing to do but it is also wildly popular. A recent poll found that 82 percent of Americans want to include work requirements for food stamps.
Last month, the House was able to pass the Farm Bill with important work reforms. Work capable adults would be asked to work, search for a job, volunteer, or take advantage of job training for just 20 hours per week in order to be eligible for welfare benefits. The House bill would close the Categorical Eligibility loophole that allows some who should not even qualify for SNAP under the requirements spelled out by the law to receive benefits. The House bill represents an improvement over the status quo that is failing too many of our nation’s most vulnerable.
Two weeks ago, the Senate passed their version of the Farm Bill, which did not include these key provisions. Now, both chambers need to reconcile these differences and work out a bill that will pass both chambers. We understand that bipartisan support in the Senate is necessary to get this bill signed into law, which is why it’s important to note the changes we propose are bipartisan. Welfare-to-work reforms are not a new idea, and in the past, they’ve even passed with a divided government. In 1996, a Republican-controlled Congress and President Bill Clinton passed welfare-to-work reforms. The changes in the House Farm Bill only seeks to strengthen what we know works from these previously bipartisan measures, and the final legislation should include these important improvements.
We face a crossroads between making investments in our workforce that will have a generational impact or keeping the status quo, which does nothing to help end the cycle of poverty. We hope this Congress will vote for change.
Rep. Mark Walker, a Republican, represents North Carolina’s 6th Congressional District. He is chairman of the Republican Study Committee. Rep. Rodney Davis, a Republican, represents Illinois’ 13th Congressional District. He is chairman of the Republican Main Street Caucus.
