Louisiana Congressman Ralph Abraham is pushing his colleagues on the Farm Bill Conference Committee to include work requirements for food stamp recipients, the last major sticking point on passage, The Shreveport Times reports.
“We’re simply asking these adults to meet the taxpayer halfway,” says Abraham, R-Alto, the only member of the state’s delegation on the panel negotiating the final version of the Farm Bill.
The conference committee includes members of the Senate and House charged with crafting a compromise version of the separate Farm Bills passed in each chamber. The Farm Bill sets agriculture policy for five years. Senators are resisting the work requirements related to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program commonly known as food stamps.
“We’re very close on every issue except except SNAP reform,” says Abraham, who emphasized the work requirements and other priorities while addressing the committee in a public hearing this week.
“I believe we’re getting closer on the work requirements,” Abraham says of his negotiations with senators. “My sense of the mood during the meeting was that senators actively listening and hopefully moving toward a more House-like position.
The House version wants able-bodied adults without dependents or disabilities to be required to work, volunteer or enroll in school for 20 hours per week to keep their food stamp benefits.
But not everyone agrees.
“I don’t see any reason to take food off the table of people who need to eat,” says Jan Moller, executive director of the left-leaning Louisiana Budget Project, an organization that advocates for low- and moderate-income families.
The Louisiana Budget Project has leased two billboards in Abraham’s 5th Congressional District population centers Alexandria and Monroe asking him to “protect SNAP.”
