Agriculture Dept. to give states more control over food stamps
Source: Politico
By POLITICO STAFF
12/05/2017 06:38 PM EST
The U.S. Department of Agriculture signaled plans Tuesday to give states greater flexibility over how they administer food stamps, potentially opening the door to stricter work requirements or drug testing on recipients.
The announcement comes as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker announced he will move ahead with drug testing able-bodied adults applying for food stamps, something the Obama administration had successfully blocked in the past.
The USDA released a vaguely worded letter this afternoon outlining principles to promote self-sufficiency and discourage waste, fraud and abuse in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a more than $70 billion program that aids roughly one in eight Americans.
"USDA intends to offer state agencies greater local control over SNAP, the safety net program that serves millions of eligible, low-income individuals and families," the department said in a statement. "Specifics on such flexibilities will be communicated to state agencies in the coming weeks."
Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/05/agriculture-food-stamps-281671
(Short article, no more at link.)
sandensea
(21,692 posts)in GOP states, food stamps are to be available to gun owners only - unless your skin color is a little too dark for comfort.
Lucky Luciano
(11,264 posts)BumRushDaShow
(129,744 posts)when the Farm Bill comes up for renewal next year. They must find more $$$ to give to the 1%.
not fooled
(5,803 posts)welfare for puke-voting rich farmers, aka crop subsidies.
ol' sonny was installed to ensure that usda helps out only certain sectors.
Back to the future, indeed.
StarryNite
(9,464 posts)Sustainable Cowboys or Welfare Ranchers of the American West?
Five hundred million dollars[1]. Thats what 21,000[2] ranchers who graze their livestock on Americas iconic western rangelands are estimated to have cost US taxpayers in 2014 and every year for the past decade. This averages out to an annual taxpayer subsidy of $23,809 per rancher approximately a quarter of a million dollars each since 2005. So why does this small subset, representing just 2.7% of US livestock producers, protest the welfare rancher label?
The public lands grazing program is welfare.
That $23,809 and its a lowball figure is a form of public assistance similar to other welfare programs. The only difference is, it doesnt arrive as a check in the mail. It instead represents a loss covered by taxpayers: the very large difference between what public lands ranchers pay in fees to the US government and what public lands grazing costs taxpayers every year. But its still a subsidy, as a newly updated economic analysis, Costs and Consequences: The Real Price of Livestock Grazing on Americas Public Lands, makes clear. And the recipients arent low income; a large number are millionaires and some are billionaires and multi-billion dollar corporations on Forbes various rich lists. Cattle barons, if you will.
[link:http://dailypitchfork.org/?p=631|