The Obama administration’s decision to waive work requirements for food stamp recipients in Louisiana will only hurt recipients in the end, U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA) warned on Thursday.
The decision will impair the ability of recipients to build skills and move themselves off of welfare rolls, Boustany added.
“We simply must require work for welfare,” Boustany said. “President Obama may not like work requirements, but they honor our values and work ethic and they send a clear message that welfare should be transitional and temporary, not a way of life.”
Draft legislation was authored by Boustany as chairman of the Ways & Means Human Resources Subcommittee that would mark the first overhauls to federal welfare programs since 1996’s landmark welfare reform law. Boustany’s proposed changes, the opposite of the president’s approach, would strengthen the work requirement, include incentives for states that move recipients off of welfare rolls into full-time work and add greater flexibility for recipients to participate in vocational training.
“These programs were designed as a safety net for those who have fallen on hard times – not a permanent draw,” Boustany said. “The sad irony is waiving work requirements will hurt the very recipients we need to help, trapping them in poverty instead of providing opportunity ladders to success. Not to mention, the potential for waste, fraud, and abuse in these programs will skyrocket without meaningful work requirements in place.
“I will keep fighting to strengthen work requirements that allow recipients to move themselves off of government assistance and make welfare a temporary hand up, not a permanent handout.”