The Trump Administration Wants Your Help Getting People Off Food Stamps

WASHINGTON ― A week after President Donald Trump proposed replacing food stamp benefits with boxes of canned goods, the Trump administration is now crowdsourcing ideas on how to shrink enrollment in the program.

Roughly 43 million Americans received monthly benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in 2016, of whom 3.8 million were able-bodied adults without children. The administration thinks those people should get less help unless they find part-time jobs.

In a rare callout for ideas, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is seeking suggestions from the public on how to reduce the able-bodied caseload. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced Thursday that the agency’s goal is “to move individuals and families from SNAP back to the workforce as the best long-term solution to poverty.”

The request for input is the latest signal the Trump administration wants more stringent food stamp rules as part of a “welfare reform” initiative for 2018. Trump-allied conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives are also itching for a food stamp fight, though it’s not clear if party leaders want to play up the issue in an election year.

Federal law imposes a three-month limit on food stamp benefits for able-bodied adults who don’t have children and don’t work at least 20 hours per week, but states with high unemployment have been allowed to waive the limit, which is billed as a “work requirement.”

Source: huffingtonpost