WASHINGTON (AP) – Democrats are deeply conflicted over the food aid requirements that President Joe Biden negotiated as part of the debt ceiling deal, fearing that it has hurt federal programs. security that will be difficult to resolve in the coming years as Republicans demand more. cuts
Negotiations on tightening work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps, became a focal point for the White House and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy , R-Calif., until the end. Negotiators on both sides made it clear, publicly and privately, that it was the area of greatest disagreement and almost caused the talks to break down several times.
In the end, Democrats grudgingly agreed to new requirements for some untroubled recipients in exchange for food aid. Republicans agreed to eliminate some work requirements for veterans, the homeless and others.
The result of the tense back-and-forth was a deal that worked for both sides, but that many Democrats agonized over as they weighed whether to vote on the package last week. Many fought to cut off access to food for marginalized communities with a result that allowed the United States to avoid defaulting on its debt.
“In order for this country not to pay its bills, then we turned around and made our most vulnerable communities not pay,” said Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo. Years before she came to Congress, Bush lived in a car with her husband and two young children after the family was evicted from their rental home.
The federal aid program provides monthly funds, sometimes as much as $6 a day, to allow low-income individuals and families to buy groceries. It’s the nation’s largest program focused on fighting hunger, with 41 million people using the benefits to buy food last year alone, according to the Agriculture Department’s Food and Nutrition Service, which administer the program.
In 2025, new requirements will apply to able-bodied adults aged 49 to 54 without dependents, an increase of five years. These people must work or attend training programs at least 80 hours a month if they want to receive more than three months of SNAP benefits in a three-year period.
Republicans have tried for decades to expand work requirements for these government aid programs, arguing that they get more people back into the workforce, despite several studies that have found they have little impact on employment.
“We’re going to make these programs back to being a life jacket, not a lifestyle. A hand up, not a handout and that’s always been the American way,” Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, vice chairman of the Republican conference of the Chamber
The White House countered that Republican proposal by having GOP lawmakers waive work requirements for new groups — veterans, people who are homeless or facing housing instability and youth aging out of shelter — to balance the number of people they would now face. these new restrictions.
The end result could be more people receiving SNAP benefits overall. An estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released Tuesday said changes in the debt ceiling package would add nearly 80,000 people to SNAP rolls in an average month.
But the tradeoff of apparently helping some groups and hurting others still left the left flank of the Democratic Party, lawmakers who have supported Biden and helped pass his agenda during the first two years of his term, frustrated. for the result That was especially the case as advocates, including the nonpartisan National Alliance to End Homelessness, warned of a troubling trend across the country of an increase in the number of older adults who are left without home, some for the first time.
“What we shouldn’t be playing is the Olympics of oppression,” Bush said. “Like who gets hurt today? Who reaches the finish line to hurt today? That’s not where we should be as a society.”
Bush, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, voted “no” on the debt limit deal Wednesday night after spending days hearing from advocacy groups and constituents on the issue.
“I think it’s important for (Biden) to understand that it’s good for us to have a strong vote, no vote because this is not a deal that I would have made if we hadn’t been held hostage,” Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington state , chairman of the Progressive Caucus, told The Associated Press last week.
They were not alone. Several dozen Democrats in the House and a handful in the Senate voted against the compromise, arguing that the bill allowed Republican hostage-taking and could open the door to future cuts to these government programs in the coming months.
“I did not agree with these SNAP restrictions, and I will not give Republicans a chance to try to take food away from more food-insecure Americans in the Farm Bill negotiations later this year,” said Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa. a statement
The White House and Democrats who ended up backing the negotiated deal said they believe the issue of work requirements and the risks Republicans posited has been put to bed.
“The most important thing to me is the fact that this closes the door on that debate,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan, who chairs the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee and has championed and long-time SNAP advocate. program “We’re not going to bring it up again in the farm bill. That’s not something that’s going to be renegotiated. It’s done.”
But advocates warn that could change because the debt limit bill was the most substantial change to the working rules for food aid and other government aid programs since they were put in place in 1996 welfare review.
Some of the most conservative Republicans in Congress – part of the right wing that McCarthy had to pacify to become speaker – have criticized the plan as “weak” and are looking to go even further to clamp down on these programs.
“In this bill, we have temporary work requirements, but we’ve added new permanent exceptions,” said Texas Rep. Keith Self, a member of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus that overwhelmingly rejected the bill. “That, ladies and gentlemen, is a sleight of hand.”
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Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
