US food aid could shrink under debt ceiling deal, hunger groups warn
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[June 02, 2023]
By Leah Douglas
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Changes to the largest U.S. food aid program in
the debt deal passed by Congress this week could force hundreds of
thousands of older Americans off of federal food aid and bury other
applicants in new paperwork, food security experts warned.
Eligibility requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program (SNAP) became a lightning rod in negotiations of the debt deal.
Food banks nationwide have been struggling to meet rising demand as
low-income Americans shoulder higher grocery costs while COVID-era
benefits have expired.
The debt plan passed by the House of Representatives on Wednesday and by
the Senate on Thursday contains work requirements to get food benefits.
The measure would exempt veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and
young adults aging out of foster care, provided they can prove their
status.
It would also expand those work requirements to adults aged 50 to 54, a
group that had previously been exempted. That change would affect nearly
750,000 people, according to the left-leaning Center on Budget and
Policy Priorities.
The White House, which has endorsed the deal as a compromise between
Democrats and Republicans, has said SNAP enrollment will be about the
same once the changes are fully implemented.
Republicans argued during negotiations that expanding work requirements
would help more SNAP recipients get jobs and reduce their dependence on
federal aid.
Some progressive lawmakers cited the work requirement issue as their
reason for not supporting the debt deal. Anti-hunger advocates argue the
new hurdles for older Americans will cause many to lose benefits, while
the newly exempted groups could struggle to navigate complex bureaucracy
to prove their status.
People aged 50 to 54, for instance, could have health conditions that
limit their ability to meet the new requirement to work 20 hours per
week, said Ty Jones Cox, vice president for food assistance at the
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Veterans and homeless people may have difficulty collecting proper
documentation to prove their exemptions as part of the complex,
state-by-state process of securing SNAP benefits, said Ellen Vollinger,
SNAP director for the Food Research & Action Center.
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People line up for food aid in Marks,
Mississippi, U.S., May 24, 2021. REUTERS/Rory Doyle/File Photo
"This will be a very heavy lift for case workers," she said. "It's
going to be very confusing."
THE WORK DEBATE
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who led Republican negotiations for
the debt deal, has said the expanded work requirements will push
more adults to work and thereby strengthen the economy. Anti-hunger
groups say the research does not support that conclusion.
In a 2022 report, the Congressional Budget Office found that SNAP's
work requirements reduced overall income of recipients because the
amount of work required made them ineligible for SNAP based on
income.
Kofi Kenyatta, director of policy and practice at UpTogether, a
nonprofit that aims to reform poverty programs, called work
requirements "arbitrary and really cruel."
Currently, SNAP recipients aged 18 to 49 without dependents or
disabilities must work 20 hours per week to receive benefits for
more than three months over a three-year period. The changes would
boost that upper age limit to 54.
Colleen Young, director of government affairs for the Greater
Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, anticipates that demand will rise
for her organization's services and food pantry as the debt plan is
implemented.
The food bank is already over budget as it distributes the
second-highest number of pounds of free food in its history, a
common tale among emergency food providers as inflation hammers
household budgets.
"It's going to be a strain," Young said.
(Reporting by Leah Douglas; Editing by David Gregorio and Tom Hogue)
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