U.S. Representatives Rodney Davis (R-IL) and Jake LaTurner (R-KS) published a joint guest column in the National Review which highlights their legislation to impose new work requirements for SNAP and Medicaid recipients who are unemployed, able-bodied, childless adults.
From their op-ed:
“It’s time to fix welfare again. Since the historic reforms of the 1990s, welfare has been steadily divorced from work once more. Today, hardly anyone on welfare is required to pursue employment or an upward path in life. Not only is this disastrous for welfare recipients themselves, but it’s also driving America’s record worker shortage. On June 9, we introduced two bills that will restore a welfare system that works in every sense of the word.
“Our bills are built on a foundation of opportunity. To start, we apply the first-ever nationwide work requirement to the Medicaid program. As a condition of receiving free federal health-care benefits, all able-bodied adults without young children would be required to work, volunteer, or participate in education and training programs at least part-time. As many as 34 million able-bodied adults are on Medicaid today. Well over half are not working, and many more work fewer than 20 hours a week, which is considered part-time.
“We also strengthen work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, typically known as food stamps. While the reforms of the ’90s contained some work requirements, they also had massive loopholes that most states have used to avoid implementing this policy for long periods of time and for large groups of people. We close those loopholes and strengthen the requirement, ensuring that 16 million able-bodied adults without young children would have to fulfill the same minimum part-time requirement. At least two-thirds are unemployed, and virtually all of the rest are underemployed.”
“…Our bills represent the antithesis of the Biden agenda, which can only be summed up as “welfare over work.” By enacting new welfare programs and endlessly extending pandemic policies that block work, the president and his allies in Congress have pushed people out of the labor force and exacerbated the worst worker shortage in American history. After more than a year and a half of failed welfare experiments, and after nearly three decades of weakening and ultimately eliminating existing work requirements, the best path is to reconnect public assistance to upward mobility.”
You can read their full op-ed in the National Review here.
H.R. 8004, the America Works Act of 2022, reinstates work requirements for Able Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWDs) requiring childless adults, unless exempted, to work or participate in work-related training or education, for at least 20 hours per week in order to receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. Davis is the lead sponsor of this legislation.
H.R. 8014, the Jobs and Opportunities for Medicaid Act, would impose a Medicaid work requirement directing all able-bodied adults to work or volunteer for no less than 20 hours per week. LaTurner is the lead sponsor of this legislation.
Original source can be found here.