Missing a chance to help millions out of poverty. Robert Doar writes:
The last time unemployment was as low as it is now, in 2000, about 6 percent of the American population was on SNAP. And even though SNAP enrollment has declined since its peak in 2013, the enrollment rate (11.9 percent) is still nearly twice what it was 18 years ago. The traditional relationship between unemployment and SNAP enrollment, which tracked very closely between the advent of food stamps and the Great Recession, has not been restored. And labor force participation among working-age adults is still two percentage points lower than it was in 2000.
There are still between 7 and 9 million SNAP recipients who are capable of work and are telling SNAP administrators that they have no earnings. Passing the farm bill without any movement toward encouraging work among this group means that we may be missing the best chance we will have in years to get millions of Americans into earnings and out of poverty.
[Robert Doar, “The Farm Bill: On SNAP, Congress Chooses Welfare over Work Once Again,” American Enterprise Institute, November 30]
