The 700,000 people expected to lose food assistance because of new rules the Trump administration will put in effect next spring aren't going to be the only ones harmed by the cuts, experts say. The new rules will impose work requirements for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participants ages 18 through 49 who aren't raising minor children in their homes.
These "able-bodied" adults, not all of whom are able-bodied, are all desperately poor and more likely to be people of color and/or living in rural communities. Many aren't, in fact, able-bodied, but don't have the resources to get the medical assistance they need to be deemed disabled. SNAP is the only federal benefit for which many of these people qualify. They will be expected to work—and prove they worked—20 hours a week, despite the fact that many live in communities where there aren't jobs. Many work in the gig economy, and have no way to prove their work hours.
"These are folks who are already living on the edge," Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, the executive director of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks tells Mother Jones. She adds, "It is our national nutrition safety net and it serves 40 million Americans. I've never witnessed anything like this. It's a deliberate attack." And it's another attack on rural America and economically distressed communities, where food stamps are helping to keep grocery stores open. "Grocery stores are not going to stay in those communities," Hamler-Fugitt says. "That's a quality-of-life issue for everyone." And as a food bank director, she knows the challenges. "Do not think for one minute that food banks and pantries can fill this gap."
Robert Greenstein at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities points out that the next recession will be made substantially worse by the rule. States can currently get a waiver from the existing work requirements in the law. These new rules will make it much harder to get the waiver to allow assistance, and "far fewer areas will qualify for waivers during a widespread, national recession." He argues that this "will limit a core strength of SNAP—its responsiveness to changes in economic conditions so that individuals who lose their source of income can quickly qualify for temporary food assistance. Instead of mitigating a recession's harm, the new rule will exacerbate it."
But this administration, says Hamler-Fugitt, "doesn't give a damn" even though it's some Trump states that will be hit the hardest.