WORK REQUIREMENTS: Time to Draw a Line on Food Stamps

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

About 80 percent of the farm bill’s spending is on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps. The rest is mostly pork for agricultural interests.

Rumor has it that President Trump may threaten to veto the bill if it doesn’t include reforms to SNAP’s work requirements. He declined to do so at a meeting today with key members of Congress, but he shouldn’t hesitate to take this step if it’s needed to move the process along. Fixing food stamps is about the only good thing that could come from a farm bill — our most storied ritual handout of taxpayer dollars to government-preferred businesses — and the Senate likely won’t go along without this kind of pressure.

It’s obvious enough that SNAP needs reform. The rolls soared even while the economy was booming before the Great Recession, rose still more during the period of turmoil that followed, and have declined only slightly during the recent recovery. Several million enrollees are jobless, able-bodied adults who should be expected to work. The current work requirements are difficult to enforce, and mainly just function as a three-month time limit applying to adults under 50 with no dependents. Many geographic areas, covering about 30 percent of the U.S. population, are exempt.

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Trump expected to threaten farm bill veto if food stamp work requirements not tightened

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