Eliminate Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility (BBCE)
With the No Welfare for the Wealthy Act sponsored by Rep. Ben Cline (R-VA)
BBCE Keeps More Americans Stuck in Dependency
What Counts as an Asset?
Voters Want to End BBCE and Check Assets!
How Does the Loophole Work?
Using the BBCE loophole, states make individuals automatically eligible for food stamps if they receive any type of ‘benefit’ funded by the state’s cash welfare program. Since welfare reform in 1996, most states have eliminated the asset limit and set a much higher income limit in cash welfare than food stamps so that benefits like work supports and childcare subsidies can go to a wider group of needy families. But states have abused the automatic eligibility for food stamps by using funds from the cash welfare program to print brochures for food stamp applicants, label the brochure a ‘benefit,’ and enroll the ‘beneficiary’ into food stamps, ignoring the food stamp program’s limits under federal law.
Loophole Language = Now Closed
The No Welfare for the Wealthy Act works by changing vague language in the Food and Nutrition Act and ensuring that no household will be eligible to receive food stamp benefits under categorical eligibility if they “do not meet the same income and resource criteria” in the food stamp program.
