House panel discusses SNAP program, work requirements
WASHINGTON — Federal food assistance benefits don't go far enough and efforts to prohibit able-bodied adults without dependents from getting any are probably ill-advised, witnesses told a House nutrition panel Tuesday.
Democratic members of the House subcommittee on nutrition said they're anxious about Republican leaders' talk of separating the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program from the 2018 Farm Bill, like they tried in 2013, or creating unrealistic work requirements for eligibility.
Recipients get between $1.40 and $1.90 per person per meal, which is probably inadequate for a healthy diet that includes fresh fruits and vegetables in most areas, said Stacy Dean, vice president for food assistance policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. There are currently about 43 million recipients
Both the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee Jim McGovern of Massachusetts and the full Agriculture Committee's top Democrat, Collin Peterson, D-Minn., said the SNAP program belongs in the next Farm Bill. The program is roughly 80 percent of the cost of all agriculture programs.
"Please do not do anything that will make hunger worse," McGovern said.
In July 2013, the House leadership pushed through a Farm Bill with the SNAP program stripped out. It was ultimately restored when the Senate made clear the bill wouldn't move without it. The move was the first time since 1973 that the nutrition program had been handled separately from farm programs such as subsidy programs for farmers and undid the compromises that had for decades created alliances between rural and urban members on agriculture policy.
U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., who represents the salad bowl of the Salinas Valley, asked witnesses how to get the farm workers in his district access to the vegetables they pick. Dean suggested that those food items are "quite expensive and out of reach" for many at the current benefits level.
In response to the same issue, Russell Sykes, director of the American Public Human Services Association, said some progress is being made with farmer's markets now accepting the food assistance program's electronic benefit transfer cards. The program once known as food stamps is now 100 percent electronic.
Much talk involved work requirements and job and skills training for able-bodied adults without dependents. Under current law, these individuals can get SNAP benefits for only three months in a three-year period unless they are exempt from the work requirement. To remain eligible beyond three months, they must work 80 hours a month. Some states cut benefits without offering training programs.
Some House Republicans have talked about further restrictions on the work requirement and are also suggesting that sugary drinks and candy linked to obesity and diabetes should perhaps not be eligible for purchase with federal taxpayer dollars, the subject of a separate hearing this month.
Dean noted that some subject to the three-month benefit time limit struggle to find employment even in good economic times. In her written testimony, she said a quarter of the able-bodied childless adults haven't graduated from high school and many have criminal records. She noted that farm bills in 2002 and 2008 relaxed the time limit restriction and said the current rules are a "harsh policy that punishes individuals who are willing to work" but can't find it.
Josh Protas, vice president for public policy at MAZON – A Jewish Response to Hunger, a nonprofit organization focused on ending hunger in the U.S. and Israel, said depictions in popular culture of able-bodied SNAP recipients are harmful and leave some, such as military families, too embarrassed to seek assistance they need.
"Re-imposing time limits seems cruel and misplaced when too little is being done to ensure that these SNAP recipients have access to good-paying job opportunities and available job-training slots," he said.