Amid a Pandemic, Trump Moves Forward With Safety Net Cuts

WASHINGTON — Despite the worsening pandemic, the Trump administration is pushing ahead with tougher work requirements for food stamps, and so far has not offered states the opportunity to cover the uninsured on an emergency basis under Medicaid.

The coronavirus appears ready to upend the economic landscape, especially for low-wage workers who could face layoffs as restaurants and entertainment venues empty, travelers hunker down, and school systems close. But so far the administration has declined to change course on its efforts to shrink the social safety net.

The Agriculture Department completed its food-stamp rule in December, arguing that the strong economy and tight labor market made it appropriate to require that unemployed, able-bodied adults without children find work to continue receiving assistance. The department estimated that nearly 700,000 people would lose their benefits under the change to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps.

Democrats and anti-poverty groups pleaded this week for the department to suspend the rule.

“Enacting any such changes during this time will only exacerbate current economic anxiety and unnecessarily increase the burden on the very people who need assistance,” Representatives Sanford D. Bishop Jr., Democrat of Georgia, and Rosa DeLauro, Democrat of Connecticut, wrote in a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.

During a hearing of the House Appropriations Committee this week, Mr. Perdue said that flexibility had been built into the program’s work requirements.

“Obviously if your job says you can’t come to work, or you’re sick in that way,” he said, the work requirements would be suspended. The states will determine what counts as “good cause” to suspend the rule.

But experts say the “good cause” measure typically applies to people who are already meeting the work requirement and miss work because of an illness or transportation issues, not those who cannot find work.

Ed Bolen, a policy analyst at the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said the secretary could provide clarity by making clear that “due to a public health emergency or pandemic, states can either use blanket sorts of waivers or exempt people from the work requirement.”

On Friday, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted a preliminary injunction to stop the food-stamp rule from going into effect. The decision came after fourteen states, New York City and the District of Columbia sued the Trump administration in January to block the new rule, accusing the administration of doing an illegal end run around Congress.

In response to the pandemic, the White House and Congress are moving to pass legislation that would likely include enhanced unemployment benefits, free virus testing and additional funds for food assistance programs.

Complicating the Agriculture Department’s role, the agency also administers free and reduced-price meals at schools, thousands of which are closing. Mr. Perdue said his department is “working to ensure children who are affected by school closures continue to get fed.” It has granted waivers to California, Washington and Alaska that allows the states to serve meals to low-income children during school closures outside of a group setting while schools are closed. The waivers will be in place until June.

The House coronavirus package included a provision that would increase food-stamp benefits to parents who have children that cannot receive meals at school because of closures.

“Although it may be necessary to close schools, it is also imperative that we keep in mind that school meals are often the only meals some students receive daily,” said Representative Marcia L. Fudge, Democrat of Ohio and chairwoman of the House Agriculture Committee’s subcommittee on nutrition.

Ellen Vollinger, the food stamp director at the Food Research & Action Center, an advocacy organization, said the coronavirus outbreak presented a new challenge because it was a public health emergency and not a natural disaster.

“We know that low-income families have a lot of pressures on their budget, they are often trying to figure out how to pay for food, medicine, their rent, utilities and there is not a lot of extra room,” she said.

Medicaid could help poor Americans weather the pandemic, particularly some of the 27 million people lacking health insurance. Yet the Trump administration has not offered states the option of covering some of all of them during the outbreak, a move previous administrations made did during emergencies. President Trump’s emergency declaration could change that by allowing states to quickly receive certain waivers from the rules; such waivers could also streamline the often-burdensome process of enrolling people in Medicaid.

In addition, the House relief package includes a provision that would temporarily increase the federal government’s share of spending on Medicaid. Washington typically covers about 60 percent of the cost, while states cover about 40 percent.

The federal government already pays much more of the cost — 90 percent — for millions of adults who became eligible for Medicaid over the last six years in 36 states that chose to expand the program under the Affordable Care Act. That generous federal share could help blunt the economic blow of the pandemic in those states.

Seema Verma, who oversees Medicaid in the Trump administration, has actively encouraged states to impose new work requirements on many recipients in recent years, rather than making it easier to enroll. Ms. Verma’s agency, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, released a statement Friday that said it was responding to requests and questions from states and “working to identify the fastest pathway to meeting their needs.

In 2005, the Bush administration allowed states to apply for a temporary expansion of Medicaid to people displaced by Hurricane Katrina just two weeks after the storm hit.

“They should be using presumptive eligibility to expedite enrollment, and allow for changes to enrollment, redetermination, and cost-sharing policies that promote patients’ immediate access to care,” said Eliot Fishman, a senior director at the consumer group Families USA, who was a top Medicaid official in the Obama administration.

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