WASHINGTON – House Republicans have put together ideas to try to get President Joe Biden to accept stricter “work requirements” for federal programs that help people pay for groceries and health care.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) highlighted the idea during a speech at the New York Stock Exchange on Monday.
McCarthy said the upcoming Republican spending plan would “restore work requirements that ensure healthy adults without dependents earn wages and learn new skills.”
McCarthy notes that there are more job openings than people who are considered unemployed.
“You know why? Partly because the Biden administration lowered work requirements,” McCarthy said. “Incentives are important. And today’s incentives are worthless. It’s time to get America back to work.
McCarthy’s remarks followed a recommendation from moderate and right-wing factions in the House Republican conference that McCarthy request a job requirement as part of a debt ceiling deal with Biden.
Sometime this year, Congress will have to pass legislation that allows the Treasury Department to continue paying off the federal debt or else the government will default, which could create financial chaos and possibly damage the economy.
McCarthy said Republicans would not approve “debt limit” changes unless Biden agreed to cut them, but Republicans were slow to provide specifics. McCarthy has not identified any federal programs that need stricter rules, but in recent weeks House Republicans have point to Medicaid with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Each month more than 22 million households receive federal nutrition assistance benefits, which can be redeemed for food products at the grocery store. Most SNAP households have members who are young, elderly or disabled, but about 13% are healthy adults without dependents — a population targeted by Republicans.
For most of its history, Medicaid has had no work requirements, and attempts to implement it during the Donald Trump administration have met with resistance from federal courts.
On the other hand, federal food assistance already has work requirements for healthy adults, but states have been able to waive those rules during the pandemic and when local unemployment is higher than average.
The SNAP work requirement is essentially a restriction on benefits for the unemployed; people who cannot log 20 hours per week of work or “work activities” – which can include training or looking for work – only get three months of benefits.
Earlier this year, Rep. Dusty Johnson (RS.D.) introduced the “America Works Act,” a bill that would make it harder for states to loosen work rules and also expand the definition of healthy adults without dependents. . Currently the rules apply to childless adults aged 18-49; Johnson’s proposal would apply the rules to adults as old as 64 and parents who have children over six.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank, said Johnson’s bill would affect a quarter of SNAP participants, or about 10 million people. That number includes 6 million adults and 4 million children in households who could lose benefits if their parents fail to meet the requirements.
Few people will be able to meet these requirements, the Budget Center said. “But a significant number will lose benefits because they are not working or working insufficient hours, the state fails to provide the exemptions they should, or they cannot navigate the verification system to prove that they are working. , “Ed Bolen of CBPP, Dottie Rosenbaum and Catlin Nchako wrote in last month’s report.
McCarthy sought to minimize the possible impact of the proposed cuts.
“Don’t believe anyone who says that our plan will destroy America’s social safety net. We are a very generous nation. And when people fall on hard times, we will help them. That will not change,” McCarthy said. “But this is important. Aid programs should be temporary, not permanent. Hands up, not handouts. A bridge to freedom, not a barrier.”
The problem for McCarthy is that even if he can get unanimous support from House Republicans for a debt ceiling bill that cuts spending and increases work requirements, the measure may not have enough support to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate. Budget failure will result in a stalemate.
“Today House Republicans have made a crystal clear priority: keep Wall Street happy and take away health care and food aid from the American people,” Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a statement. “The only thing called a job requirement is burying people with documents to deny them necessities like food and health.”
McCarthy traveled to New York there to talk up the Republican plan to develop, but more importantly, to blame Biden for a possible federal debt default.
“The longer President Biden waits to find an agreement, the more this administration will be the first default in our country’s history,” McCarthy said.