USDA fights to purge food stamps recipients despite pandemic

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/usda-fights-to-purge-food-stamps-recipients-despite-pandemic?fbclid=IwAR0ezdfsX-eFOhNnEqtSwyw0DdX-5EyVrFZL-8MYaIVkhmOA6lOHqlaPDQo

Mar 18, 2020 7:13 PM EDT

The Agriculture Department said Wednesday that it would appeal a judge’s ruling that it would be “arbitrary and capricious” to move forward during a global health crisis with food stamp changes that could force hundreds of thousands from the program.

Federal Judge Beryl Howell, in a ruling late last week, stopped a set of changes that would have taken effect on April 1. On Wednesday, an Agriculture Department spokesperson responded to an Associated Press query with a terse email saying only that “USDA disagrees with the court’s reasoning and will appeal its decision.”

Under the current rules, able-bodied adults without dependents must show they’ve worked at least 80 hours per month for more than three months in a 36-month period to stay in the SNAP or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — commonly known as food stamps.

However, individual states have had the ability to waive that work requirement and time limit for areas of the state that have high unemployment rates. The changes, championed by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, would have taken that waiver ability from the states, starting on April 1. Estimates from the Agriculture Department set the number of people who would be removed from the program at approximately 700,000.

In response to a lawsuit brought by a group of state attorneys general, Howell ordered a freeze on the changes.

•••••

Vollinger said that if the Agriculture Department really does intend to fight for the SNAP program changes, it might end up publicly clashing with Congress. The economic relief package recently approved by the House also suspends the government’s ability to remove SNAP benefits over the work requirement.