For millions of families stuck in government dependence, the stakes couldn’t be higher: Their opportunity to experience work through welfare reforms that promote work is in the hands of congressional members. It’s a historic moment — the unemployment rate is low, and there are more than six million available jobs across the country. The opportunity is there, but the number of able-bodied adults stuck on food stamps is at crisis levels.
Voters are looking for reformers to craft a farm bill that restores the food stamp program as a temporary safety net, not a trap. To achieve success, the farm bill must include reforms that promote work for able-bodied adults, prioritize resources for the truly needy, and combat waste, fraud, and abuse.
Expand work to more able-bodied adults
Under current law, able-bodied adults without dependents are required to work, train, or volunteer at least part-time to receive food stamps. However, waivers from work requirements that were intended to provide flexibility in times of economic crisis have been abused — as a result, despite low unemployment rates, 62 percent of able-bodied, childless adults are exempt from work requirements. Work requirements are a proven and effective way to preserve resources for the truly needy and help individuals stuck in dependency regain their self-sufficiency, but they only work if actually implemented.
When work requirements have been enforced in states like Kansas and Maine, those leaving food stamps found work in more than 600 different industries and doubled their incomes, on average. Lost benefits were more than offset by earned wages, and able-bodied adults were free to experience the dignity of work. Congress should do more than just rein in waivers — they should expand work requirements to even more able-bodied adults, including the middle-aged adults and parents, so even more individuals can experience the benefits of work.
More than 12 million able-bodied parents are dependent on food stamps today — and 52 percent of them are not working at all. The best way to free families from the cycle of government dependency is to get parents back to work, and work requirements have the best track record for accomplishing that goal.
Enforce child support cooperation
The farm bill must also target delinquent child support payments to help combat dependency: Incomes of single-parent families are increased by an average of 54 percent when child support is received, yet fewer than one in four single-parent families on food stamps receive any child support payments that are owed. Requiring single parents on food stamps to comply with child support enforcement as a condition for welfare eligibility would help millions of children escape dependency and is estimated to increase child support payments by $300 million a year.
Combat fraud, waste, and abuse
The most effective welfare reforms would return the food stamp program to its original purpose as a temporary safety net for the truly needy. Congress must eliminate loopholes and regulations that have opened the door to welfare fraud and have allowed bureaucrats to create a new welfare class of able-bodied adults. Poor reporting systems and scams like broad-based categorical eligibility have resulted in individuals with incomes or assets above program thresholds receiving food stamps — including millionaires. Closing these loopholes will preserve millions of taxpayer-funded resources for the truly needy.
With such high stakes, these commonsense reforms shouldn’t be partisan issues — but for some members of Congress, they have become just that. Despite 82 percent of voters supporting work requirements for able-bodied, working-age adults on food stamps, members like Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., stand firmly opposed to the reforms included in the farm bill. Americans want the opportunity to experience work — but leaders like Stabenow are depriving them of that opportunity.
The time for welfare reform is now. Congress needs to get on board.
Kristina Rasmussen is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is vice president of federal affairs for the Foundation for Government Accountability.
