Congress created some of the most significant revisions to the food stamp program in decades during an effort to prevent the country from defaulting on its loans Thursday night. Hunger advocates and lawmakers are still parsing through what these changes will mean for the nation's most vulnerable.
When the agreement details were made public, advocates on both sides say they were blindsided. Progressives hoped the Biden administration would fend off any attempts to increase work requirements for food stamps recipients. Republicans were looking for a policy geared at moving even more people off the program and into the workforce.
After weeks of negotiations, White House and Republican negotiators settled on a mixed bag when it came to food assistance: a change to the longtime program that would enact new work requirements for those ages 50 to 54 but would spare people from work requirements if they meet one of the following categories:
All of the changes are set to end in 2030.
"If the goal is to minimize the impact of work requirements, it was a good response to the call for expanding the age range to trade that off by exempting some of the most vulnerable groups," said Katherine Hempstead, a senior policy adviser at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation who focuses on health care issues. "If at the end of the day, it's sort of a wash or maybe even an increase,...
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