Under an amendment tacked on to House Bill 318,"The Protect North Carolina Workers Act", would permanently bar North Carolina’s ability to suspend SNAP’s three month time limit for childless adults who are working fewer than 20 hours per week.
The bill was sent to the Governor's desk for approval, to the cheers of senators adjoining the session at 4 am Wednesday morning . That concluded the final legislative session In North Carolina, which had been in session for the last 10 months .
This cowardly "Hit and run" tactic first gained notoriety in the Old North State with the passage of the "motorcycle vagina" anti-abortion bill which also passed while burning the midnight oil. How they got away with that stunt is a whole nother Diary that we won't get into here.
So what was the dark deal that they slipped into the "Protect North Carolina Workers Act"
Here’s the deal:
SNAP benefits are limited under federal law to three months out of every three years for childless, non-disabled adults unless they are working at least half time, participating in a qualified job training program for 20 hours a week, or in workfare. This time limit applies regardless of whether these individuals are actually able to find employment or training opportunities.
Under this amendment, the Department of Health and Human Services is barred from applying for a waiver, effectively reimposing the time limit even though 77 counties in the state qualify for a waiver due to high unemployment. This unnecessarily restricts food assistance for poor childless adults in areas where the economy has not yet fully recovered.
Up to 105,000 Childless Adults would lose Food Aid in 2016 because They Can't find work if this bill becomes law and new waivers are stopped
This bill would further prevent the state from ever requesting a waiver, removing an important state response to future economic downturns.
In the final analysis, Permanently barring the state from even having the option to provide food assistance to unemployed childless adults during times of high unemployment and then keeping in mind the recent draconian cuts to unemployment benefits which dropped the maximum weekly amount that can be received by nearly $200 that went into effect this month,this bill would drop the amount of assistance to unemployed recipients by about another $100 a week on the average, which in my opinion, would be a complete policy failure.
With Pope Francis is receiving global accolades for calling on Americans to help the poor, North Carolina lawmakers are, once more, doing the exact opposite.