U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced plans on Thursday to unilaterally tighten rules governing food stamps, a move he said would help lift people out of poverty but safety net advocates warned could harm low-income Americans.
If finalized, the former Georgia governor's proposal would be one of the most significant changes made to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, in years. It seeks to crack down on the waivers the Department of Agriculture gives states – including Georgia – from food stamp work requirements.
The federal government has long had such requirements in place for able-bodied adults who aren’t caretakers or disabled, but Perdue said too many states were taking advantage of exemptions meant to help them weather tough economic times.
“Americans are generous people who believe it’s their responsibility to help their fellow citizens when they encounter a difficult stretch,” Perdue told reporters late Wednesday. “But like other federal welfare programs it was never intended to be a permanent way of life.”
Under current law, able-bodied adults without dependents are limited to three months of food stamps every three years unless they work at least 20 hours a week or participate in a workforce training program. States can apply for waivers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to extend those benefits if they can provide evidence of “chronic, sustained high unemployment.”
Many states, including Georgia, applied for such waivers during the Great Recession and have sought extensions in the years since. Thirty-six states currently have federal waivers for some or all of their counties.
Perdue said with the economy booming, cracking down on work requirements is warranted.
“Available jobs outnumber those seeking employment,” he said. “With these economic conditions it’s reasonable to expect able-bodied people who are neither working nor seeking work” to reenter the labor force.
Among the changes floated by Perdue on Thursday were allowing states to waive SNAP requirements only in areas where the unemployment rate tops 7 percent. Georgia's was 3.5 percent last month, according to state Labor Commissioner Mark Butler.
The changes would not apply to children, the elderly and disabled, who make up the vast majority of food stamp users. Roughly 9 percent of SNAP recipients are able-bodied adults without dependents, a top Agriculture Department official said earlier this year.
Georgia impact
It was not immediately clear how the proposal -- which is subject to public comment and must be finalized before going into effect -- would specifically impact Georgia. Roughly 1.5 million Georgians participated in SNAP in September 2018, according to federal data.
The state has gradually reinstated work requirements in many urban and suburban counties over the last several years, a policy that's proven to be wildly popular among conservatives. It has led to a sharp decrease in enrollment in recent years.
Slightly more than 40 percent of Georgia’s 159 counties still have waivers in place, according to the Division of Family and Children Services, and the state has plans to roll out work requirements statewide in 2019.
Critics contend that such requirements are mean-spirited and often discount people who aren’t able to hold jobs because of mental health issues, undiagnosed medical problems and criminal records.
A DFCS spokesman said Wednesday he couldn’t comment on Perdue’s proposed regulation because it was still pending.
Among other proposed changes, the rulemaking would limit waivers in “larger geographic areas that may include sections with sufficient available jobs,” a provision that could have major implications for metro Atlanta.
Critics of Perdue’s plan said it could hit poorer rural areas of the state particularly hard, as well as communities of color and poorer patches of metro Atlanta.
Lauren Waits, director of government affairs for the Atlanta Community Food Bank, said the proposed changes appear to "restrict Georgia from extending SNAP benefits in high need areas." Most of Georgia’s current waivers cover rural counties where between 20 and 38 percent of households use food stamps, she said.
"We are very concerned that new burdensome regulations would limit the state's ability to decide where people need SNAP the most," Waits said.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank, estimated that “hundreds of thousands” of people nationwide could lose their food stamps under the proposed changes. The Washington Post put the number at roughly 755,000 people.
One of Perdue’s top deputies said the rulemaking would save the feds $15 billion over a decade and cut down on waivers by 75 percent.
Farm bill redux
Perdue's proposal comes the same day that President Donald Trump is slated to sign the new $867 billion farm bill.
The compromise version ultimately approved by Congress omitted the new work requirements and tightened eligibility rules sought by conservative Republicans in the House earlier this year.
The changes being pitched by Perdue aren’t quite as broad, but they’re seen as a consolation prize to those SNAP overhaul supporters.
“The best way out of poverty is a great job,” said U.S. Rep. Rick Allen, R-Evans, a member of the House Agriculture Committee who cheered the news Wednesday. “We’ve got 7 million jobs open in this country. Everywhere I go (companies) need people, and we need to give folks the opportunity to get great jobs.”
Since becoming Agriculture chief, Perdue has led the push for expanded work requirements. In addition to championing the House version of the farm bill, he pitched a widely-panned proposal to replace roughly half of SNAP benefits with a "harvest box" of federally selected foods last year.
SNAP costs the federal government roughly $70 billion a year and helps almost 40 million low-income people purchase their groceries each month.
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