What’s the use of a 22-year-old law if it’s not enforced?
The Trump administration said recently it would close loopholes that states have been using to exempt able-bodied adults without dependents receiving food stamps from work requirements.
The Bill Clinton-era work requirements were passed in 1996, requiring adults between the ages of 18 and 49, who are not disabled and have no dependents, to work at least 20 hours a week or be engaged in some sort of education or work training in order to receive food stamps.
However, federal law also allows states to waive the requirements in areas of high unemployment (10 percent and above), and areas higher than the national rate (currently 3.7 percent). This was often done during the Great Recession, and the Obama administration pushed for fewer requirements across the board to be in place to receive benefits.
Now, with unemployment overall and unemployment for blacks and Hispanics at near low records, such waivers – still in place for more than a third of the nation, according to the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) – are unnecessary.