House Republicans just can't help themselves, even with an ever-simmering civil war in their conference. There's an election in seven months that will very likely end their majority. They have to pass another budget by the end of September, while the White House is insisting that they re-legislate the one they just finished, over Republican objections. Now they're causing a fight within the conference and with the Senate over the farm bill by using it to slash the food stamp program and impose new work requirements on recipients. Because that's how much they want to make poor people go hungry.
The House Agriculture Committee’s bill would make between 5 million and 7 million recipients of food stamps, as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is commonly known, subject to stricter work requirements. Democratic committee members broke off talks with Chairman Mike Conaway last month, arguing the policy would needlessly kick people off SNAP.
"The GOP's 'workforce requirements' are nothing but a cynical Trojan Horse to take away SNAP from millions of hungry families," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who this week urged Democrats to oppose the "disastrous" bill.
Those stricter work requirements would be imposed on most adults, the so-called "able bodied," between 18 and 59 who aren't seriously disabled or have a child in the household under age 6. They'll have to demonstrate each month that they're working at least 20 hours a week or are in a work training program for 20 weeks. States will be required to build systems and procedures to track all of that, on a monthly basis, for the millions of people these requirements affect. Note that this requirement will apply to people already working—they'll have to prove it, every month, to keep benefits. This includes people who have part-time jobs that don't have stable hours—they might be required by their employers to be available to work for 30 hours a week, but actually only get called in for 15, or 17 of those hours. If they have a 15-hour week of work, and can't substitute the other 5 hours in a training program because they have to remain on call, they could lose benefits. Oh, and their school-aged children could lose their free meals at school.
Meanwhile, the bill "would slightly boost safety net programs for farmers." But the fight they are causing over food assistance jeopardizes the very passage of the bill, just when farm communities are already extremely unhappy with Trump over the tariffs that have boomeranged back on them. The deadline for this bill is also September 30, when the farm bill expires. And it could get worse, says Rep. Conaway (R-TX), the bill's lead author. That's because "[w]e have some members on the committee who have a keen interest" in also requiring drug testing for SNAP recipients.
The Senate Agriculture Committee, in the meantime, is working on its own version—which is bipartisan—of the bill, and is likely to reject making food assistance even harder to get. So this, in addition to causing more angst for poor people, is also setting up another battle front within the House and between the House and the Senate. But at least it doesn’t include Trump’s food boxes.