WASHINGTON – House Republicans have rallied around the idea of trying to get President Joe Biden to agree to stricter “work requirements” for federal programs that help people pay for food and care. medical.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) highlighted the idea during a speech at the New York Stock Exchange on Monday.
McCarthy said a forthcoming Republican spending plan “will reinstate work requirements that ensure healthy adults without dependents earn a paycheck and learn new skills.”
McCarthy noted that there are more job openings than people counted as unemployed.
“Do you know why? Partly it’s because the Biden administration loosened labor requirements,” McCarthy said. “Incentives matter. And incentives are out of control today. It’s time for Americans to go back to work.”
McCarthy’s comments followed recommendations from moderate and far-right factions within the House Republican conference that McCarthy demand job requirements as part of a debt-ceiling showdown with Biden.
Sometime this year, Congress will need to pass legislation that allows the Treasury Department to continue paying federal debts, or else the government will default, potentially creating financial chaos and perhaps even collapsing the economy.
McCarthy has said Republicans will not pass a “debt limit” change unless Biden agrees to the spending cuts, but Republicans have been slow to offer details. McCarthy did not identify which federal programs need tougher rules, but in recent weeks House Republicans have pointed to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Each month, more than 22 million households receive federal nutrition assistance benefits, which can be redeemed for food items at grocery stores. Most SNAP households have members who are young, elderly or disabled, but about 13% include healthy adults with no dependents, the target population for Republicans.
For most of its history, Medicaid has had no work requirements, and attempts to impose it during the Donald Trump administration were met with resistance in federal courts.
On the other hand, federal food assistance already has work requirements for able-bodied adults, but states have been able to waive the rules during the pandemic and as long as local unemployment is higher than average.
The SNAP work requirement is essentially a restriction on benefits for the unemployed; Individuals who cannot document 20 hours per week of employment or “work activities,” which may include training or job search, may only have three months of benefits.
Earlier this year, Rep. Dusty Johnson (RS.D.) introduced the “America’s Work Act,” a bill that would make it harder for states to waive work rules and also expand the definition of a healthy adult without a dependent. . Currently, the rule applies to childless adults ages 18 to 49; Johnson’s proposal would apply the rule to adults up to age 64 and parents whose children are older than 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. The total includes 6 million adults and 4 million children in households who could lose benefits if their parents don’t qualify.
Some people might qualify, the Budget Center said. “But a very significant number would likely lose benefits because they are out of work or working insufficient hours, were not tested by the state for a waiver they should have qualified for, or were unable to navigate the verification system to prove they are working. . ”, Ed Bolen, Dottie Rosenbaum and Catlin Nchako of CBPP wrote in a report last month.
McCarthy tried to minimize the potential impact of the proposed cut.
“Don’t believe anyone who says our plan would hurt America’s social safety net. We are a very generous nation. And when people fall on hard times, we will help them. That won’t change,” McCarthy said. “But this is important. Assistance programs are supposed to be temporary, not permanent. Hand up, not alms. A bridge to independence, not a barrier.”
The problem for McCarthy is that even if he can win unanimous support from House Republicans for a debt ceiling bill that reduces spending and increases labor requirements, such a measure would likely lack sufficient support. to pass through the Democratic-controlled Senate. The budget stalemate will turn into a stalemate.
“Today House republicans They have made their priorities crystal clear: keep Wall Street happy and take away health care and food assistance from working Americans,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a statement. “All the so-called work requirements do is bury people with paperwork to deny them necessities like food and health care.”
McCarthy traveled to New York on Monday to discuss the emerging Republican plan, but more importantly, to Biden blamed for possible federal debt default.
“The longer President Biden waits to come to his senses and find a deal, the more likely this administration will fall into the first default in our nation’s history,” McCarthy said.
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