JUDY WOODRUFF: Today, the U.S. Department
of Agriculture announced new rules that will
restrict who can qualify to receive federal
food assistance, known as the SNAP program,
or food stamps.
As William Brangham reports, the move comes
after similar explicit restrictions were blocked
from the farm bill that President Trump signed
today.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: That's right, Judy.
Republicans and President Trump wanted restrictions
to the food stamp program to be included in
the $867 billion farm bill, but Democrats
balked, and so those specific restrictions
were left out.
But the USDA -- that's the agency that oversees
the food stamp program -- announced today
that it is effectively expanding work requirements
and allowing fewer exemptions for hundreds
of thousands of Americans who receive this
federal help buying their groceries.
Republicans have long sought these kinds of
changes, arguing that too many able-bodied
Americans are getting help that they don't
really need.
Democrats argue these requirements are too
harsh and will hurt unemployed and underemployed
Americans.
Jeffrey Stein has been covering all this for
The Washington Post.
And he joins me now.
Thank you for being here.
JEFF STEIN, The Washington Post: Thanks for
having me.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So, tell us a little bit
more.
The USDA put out these rules today.
What specific changes are they making?
JEFF STEIN: So, I think what's really important
to understand is that the vast majority of
the 40 million Americans who receive food
stamps are working.
And there's ways around -- what basically
these states are allowed to do is to grant
exemptions for these work requirements for
people with SNAP benefits, if they live in
an area with very high unemployment.
That way, people can still get the benefits
they need to be able to eat, even if they
can't work because there's no jobs and job
opportunities in their areas.
What the administration, what the Trump administration
said today was, we're going to restrict and
pare back the ability of states to grant these
waivers, which will have the effect of cutting
off potentially 755,000 people from the program.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And the argument that they're
making is, is that the rules right now are
too lenient, in the sense that -- you're saying,
if the vast majority of people who receive
food stamps are working, what do the requirements
actually change?
JEFF STEIN: So, right now, the way the food
stamp waiver works is, if your area, your
county has an unemployment rate more than
20 percent of the national average, then you
can get the waiver.
This would change that to set it at 7 percent.
So, your county would have to have an unemployment
rate of above 7 percent to receive the exemption.
And there are approximately 900 counties across
the country that fall into that designation.
So, this could affect a lot of people who
rely on these benefits.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So, of those 750,000 people,
do we know kind of who those people are?
Are they old?
Are they young?
Are they -- like, who is the demographic there?
JEFF STEIN: That's a good question.
It's mostly white people.
It's mostly poor people.
The average income of this group is about
$4,000 a year, which is...
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Four thousand dollars a
year?
JEFF STEIN: That's really not a lot of money.
But there are -- throughout the country, 36
separate states and territories have these
waivers.
So that's basically half the country, more
than half the country.
So it's a -- it's a wide swathe of the poor
in America.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The Republicans have long
argued -- this isn't just a fight that's happening
in the Trump administration.
They have long argued that people need to
work, and, if they work, then they can receive
these benefits.
Like, this has been a long ideological fight
that the Republicans and the Democrats have
been fighting for a long time.
I understand that the Republicans wanted even
more severe restrictions in the farm bill
itself.
JEFF STEIN: That's correct.
What they wanted to do was to restrict the
ability of people with children from 6 to
12 and elderly people -- well, not exactly
elderly, but between the ages of 49 and 59
-- to be able to receive food stamp benefits.
Those changes were rejected because congressional
Republicans needed votes in the Senate to
pass their farm bill.
So, the Trump administration is just going
to do this unilaterally, bypassing Congress
entirely.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So, the rules have been
put forward.
I understand there's a 90-day window now.
And I understand -- I have already seen in
my e-mails and on Twitter that the Democrats
and other groups that support the food stamp
program are really fighting this.
Like, is there anything that they can do right
now to change this?
JEFF STEIN: There's going to be a legal challenge.
It's not exactly clear who's going to file
that.
My guess is, it's going to be governors in
Democratic states that say this impedes our
ability to effectively administer the program.
But we haven't heard that yet.
Right now, it really seems like the Trump
administration is going to be able to do this
without anyone stopping them.
Maybe that will change.
And we will see.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Jeffrey Stein of "The Washington
Post," thank you very much for being here.
JEFF STEIN: Thanks for having me.
