House passes Food Major Stamp reforms Measure saves taxpayers $39 billion while reining in entitlements Washington, DC - Acting to control spending in a fast-growing program, the U.S. House today passed the “Nutrition Reform and Work Opportunity Act,” H.R. 3102. Congressman Mac Thornberry (R-Clarendon) voted in favor of the bill, which passed by a vote of 217 to 210. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill will reduce government spending by $39 billion over 10 years. Those savings are achieved through reforms to the food stamp program (presently known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP), which would be the first major reforms to SNAP since welfare reform in 1996. Currently, nearly one in seven Americans is on food stamps, and the program costs American tax payers $80 billion a year. “This bill includes reasonable, commonsense reforms to the food stamp program, which has more than doubled in cost since 2008,” Thornberry said. “It is important to have a safety net for folks who are truly in need. But, there are millions of beneficiaries out who are taking advantage of the system and hard working families that are struggling to make ends meet shouldn’t be left with the bill,” he continued. Among the many reforms in the bill, it would: - Prevent states from waiving work requirements for many able-bodied individuals on food stamps; - Allow states to drug test beneficiaries; - Prevent lottery winners, traditional college students, the deceased, illegal immigrants, and those convicted of drug offenses from accessing benefits; - And restrict the ability of individuals to be deemed “categorically eligible” when they do not meet the income or asset requirements for public assistance. “The food stamp program has been ballooning for years because of all these loopholes that the Obama Administration has used to increase enrollment. Our country cannot possibly sustain this rate of government spending, and this bill aims to rein it in,” said Thornberry. For the past 40 years, SNAP funding has been included in the Farm Bill, but this year, House Republicans split the two into separate pieces of legislation. If the bills are agreed to by the Senate and signed by the President, SNAP funding would be authorized for three years, while agriculture funding would be authorized for five.
Posted on: Thu, 19 Sep 2013 22:59:12 +0000
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