NAPLES, FL – This week, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced S.1188, his SNAP Reform and Upward Mobility Act (SRUMA). This legislation tightens up food stamp eligibility requirements, helps prevent fraud, and closes loopholes that have long been exploited to add tens of millions of able-bodied Americans onto the program at the expense of the truly needy—and keep them there.
A few key provisions of SRUMA:
- Expands the food stamp general work requirements to individuals aged 16-64.
- Expands the hour-based work requirements to individuals aged 18-64 and to individuals with children over the age of six (rather than just childless adults).
- Closes a “broad-based categorical eligibility” loophole in food stamps by ensuring that benefits received through other safety-net programs are means-tested, ongoing, and substantial for those benefits to make an individual categorically eligible for food stamps.
- Requires food stamp recipients to cooperate with fraud investigations as a condition of program eligibility.
“Simply put, work requirements work,” said Tarren Bragdon, president and CEO of the Foundation for Government Accountability. “At a time when we have two open jobs for every person looking for one, the federal government must do what it can to address the labor crisis. By strengthening work requirements for our federal food stamp program, Sen. Lee’s SNAP Reform and Upward Mobility Act will protect valuable resources for the truly needy while helping states get Americans off the sidelines to experience the dignity of work.”
President Biden’s unilateral, massive expansion of the food stamp program has been fueling our nation’s workforce crisis. There are now a near-record-high 41.6 million Americans on food stamps, more than doubling from two decades ago—all while there are nearly 10 million open jobs across the country with not enough workers to fill them.
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The Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) is a non-profit, multi-state think tank that promotes public policy solutions to create opportunities for every American to experience the American Dream. To learn more, visit TheFGA.org.