Final Farm Bill Should Include Strong Work Requirements for SNAP

Today on the floor, I urged the Farm Bill’s conference committee to strengthen work requirements for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients, similar to my amendment to the Senate Farm Bill. 

Although I was proud to support the Senate's version of the legislation, I was somewhat disappointed that it did not include stronger reforms to some of these nutrition programs, including work requirements for people who are able-bodied, or training requirements for people who need additional training, or community service for people who can't work or don't want the training but at least provide some service to their local communities.

I appreciate what the House has done to provide for those work requirements in the bill that my friend, Chairman Conaway, included in the House version.

He put together some very commonsense work requirements that were based on broad stakeholder input. During this record of low unemployment across the nation, it's not unreasonable to try to use this opportunity, which comes only once every five years, to take a look and ensure that our federal dollars are being spent wisely.

While I wish the members of the Conference Committee my best as they try to reach consensus on the Farm Bill, I would encourage them to take another look at Chairman Conaway’s ideas on work requirements.