Food Stamps

Food stamps are part of a federal government program (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP), run by the Department of Agriculture (USDA). Food stamps are intended to help low-income individuals and families supplement their nutritional budgets. However, they are often abused by those unwilling to work. This can be illustrated in the case when the state of Georgia added a work requirement to its food stamp program and thousands of people stopped using the program,^[1] or in the 13 counties in Alabama that reinstated work requirements and saw an 85% decrease in food stamps.^[2] States that added work requirements to their food stamp programs saw drops in the number of people using them.^[3] In 2017, Tennessee also reinstated its work requirements for food stamp recipients without disabilities.^[4] On the other hand, California had a waiver approved to allow it to be exempt 95% of its counties from work requirements.^[5]

In September 2018, U.S. Representative Ralph Abraham urged colleagues on the Farm Bill House-Senate Conference Committee to include work requirements for food stamp recipients: "We're simply asking these adults to meet the taxpayer halfway." The farm bill sets agriculture policy for five years though the United States Constitution says that a current Congress cannot commit spending to a future Congress. The Senate is resisting the work requirements related to the popular Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Abraham said that the committee "is very close on every issue except SNAP reforms.^[6]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• USDA website