The House of Representatives have approved a bill Thursday that will cut $39 billion from the food stamp program during the next decade.
The Republican plan will cut nearly $4 billion a year from food stamps, a five percent reduction to the nation's main feeding program used by more than one in five Americans. There are currently 48 million low-income Americans. The 217-210 vote was a win for conservatives, over objections from the Democrats and a veto threat from President Barack Obama.
"These cuts would affect a broad array of Americans who are struggling to make ends meet, including working families with children, senior citizens, veterans, and adults who are still looking for work," the White House said in a statement on the bill, according to CBS.
According to the New York Times, the bill was needed because the food stamp program costs the United States nearly $80 billion a year. The program was stated to have grown out of control. They said the program had expanded even as jobless rates had declined.
"This Bill eliminates loopholes, ensures work requirements and puts us on a fiscally responsible path," said Representative Martin Stutzman, Republican of Indiana. "In the real world, we measure success by results. It's time for Washington to measure success by how many families are lifted out of poverty and helped back on their feet, not by how much Washington bureaucrats spend year after year."
Republicans argued the bill would restore the program's original eligibility limits and preserve the safety net for the truly needy. Republicans invoked former President Bill Clinton in their defense of the bill by comparing the changes in relation to 1996 law called for work requirements for those who received benefits.
In defense, Democrats held up pictures of people they said would lose their benefits and call the cuts draconian. The party stated the cuts would plunge million of Americans into poverty.
"It's a sad say in the people's House when the leadership brings to the floor one of the most heartless bills I have ever seen," said Representative James McGovern, Democrats of Massachusetts. "It's terrible policy trapped in a terrible process."
The bill will also require adults between 18 and 50 without minor children to find a job or enroll in a work-training program in order to receive benefits. It would limit the time receipts could get benefits to three months.
"This bill makes getting Americans back to work a priority again for out nation's welfare programs" House Speaker John A. Boehner. The bill would restrict individuals who are enrolled in social welfare programs and lottery winner from receiving benefits.
The bill allows states to require food stamp recipients to be tested for drugs. The food stamp program would cost more than $700 billion over the next 10 years, according to the Times. The cost of food stamps - officially called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), has exploded over the past decade, according to the Department of Agriculture.
In 2001, the program served 17 million people at a cost of just over $15 billion. As of June, there were 47.8 million people enrolled in the program, and annual costs were about $75 billion.
