The Trump administration is looking at yet another way to make Americans go hungry—750,000 of them, this time. Team Trump is planning to tighten work requirements on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Currently, there’s a three-month limit on able-bodied adults without dependents getting SNAP, unless they’re working, volunteering, or in job training for 20 hours a week. But states can waive that limit in areas where work is scarce, because it’s vicious nonsense to penalize people for not working if there are not jobs available. That’s the vicious nonsense the Trump administration is embracing, planning to make it more difficult for states to waive the requirements.
NPR visited Baltimore’s Franciscan Center, finding people with a variety of reasons for relying on SNAP while not working. Because of “a severely injured leg and a criminal record” that make it difficult to find work. Because they work, but not 20 hours a week or only seasonally. Because mental illness or drug addiction makes it hard to find and hold down a job while not reducing people’s need to eat to survive.
But what about job training? Well, there are an estimated 30,000 people in Maryland who stand to lose benefits under the Trump plan, and “If all those folks showed up at a job training site tomorrow, they would swamp the offices,” says the director of Maryland Hunger Solutions. “There's not enough space for them to be able to do this.” Not enough job training (and job training only works if there are jobs to be trained for), not enough jobs, but never mind all that: People should work, train, or go hungry.
The proposed rule is expected to go into effect later this year, and “States are not required to guarantee an individual a job, training or volunteer opportunity before stopping their benefits,” because such a guarantee would completely violate the intent of the rule, which is to make people suffer.