A new welfare reform bill was announced by U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin (R-ME) on Thursday that would prevent terrorists from using government provided food stamps.
Poliquin’s No Welfare for Terrorists Act would keep anyone convicted of terrorist activity from being eligible for federal food stamps.
“I am very proud to introduce this common sense No Welfare for Terrorists Act,” Poliquin said. “I am shocked that our current law does not prevent the criminals who have been convicted of plotting and carrying out acts of terrorism against innocent Americans from getting welfare benefits. Terrorist victims and their families should never be forced to fund those who harmed them. This bill guarantees this will never happen.”
The legislation will be officially introduced in the House on Monday after it comes back into session.
Poliquin has made protecting the U.S. from terrorist threats an important part of his platform, voting in December for the Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015 to provide the necessary mechanisms to prevent the exploitation of the nation’s travel and customs rules by terrorists.
“Currently, citizens from 38 different countries are able to visit the United States for a 90 day period using only a passport,” Poliquin said in December. “No additional screening is required at American embassies to receive visas. This makes it impossible to track these individuals if they stay over 90 days, and poses a major threat to our national security.
“We certainly still want to welcome business travelers and tourists to the United States, who contribute $220 billion and more than 1 million jobs each year to the U.S. economy through purchases of plane tickets, hotels, meals and so on. This bill, which I cosponsored, will cancel visa waivers for countries that do not share their intelligence data for potential terrorists with the FBI, do not screen travelers against INTERPOL criminal and suspected terrorist databases, and do not issue their citizens with biometric passports which cannot be counterfeited.”
The legislation passed the House on Dec. 8.