WV Senate Workforce Committee advances bill expanding work requirements of food stamp recipients

The Senate Workforce Committee on Monday advanced legislation that would expand the work requirements for West Virginians who receive benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps. 

The bill would mandate participation in a SNAP employment and training program for able-bodied adults up to age 59 unless they meet a qualification for exemption. The programs are currently voluntary.

Under the bill, exemptions include caring for a child under age 6 or an incapacitated adult, going to school at least part time, being employed at least 30 hours a week and participating in a drug or alcohol treatment program, among other things. 

With some exceptions, the federal government requires able-bodied recipients ages 18 to 54 to meet work and training requirements in order to receive SNAP longer than three months within three years.

If the bill passes, SNAP recipients would be required to work at least 20 hours a week or be subject to a time limit on SNAP of three months within three years, and work 30 hours a week to be exempt from the state’s SNAP Employment & Training (SNAP E&T) participation requirements, an attorney for the committee explained. 

The bill would allow the state Department of Human Services to exempt up to 20% of individuals from the SNAP E&T program work based on challenges that the person would experience complying with the requirements. 

The Senate passed the legislation during the 2024 legislative session, but the House did not adopt it. Sen. Rollan Roberts, R-Raleigh, told West Virginia Watch late last year he planned to reintroduce the bill this session. 

During that interview, Roberts said the bill combines compassion with responsibility.

“I don’t know what they’re doing with their lives,” Roberts said. “They’re not volunteering, seeking vocational training, or they’re not working. OK, so what are these able-bodied adults doing with no dependents? They are not contributing to society in a positive way, apparently, and are we sustaining that lifestyle? And does that lifestyle impact other negative consequences everywhere in society? I suspect that it does. It’s anecdotal proof.”

Jeremiah Samples, former deputy secretary for the state Department of Health and Human Resources, testified before the committee on behalf of the Opportunity Solutions Project, a partner organization to the Foundation for Government Accountability, a right-leaning organization that promotes work over welfare.

“The most simplistic way to describe this bill is that this expands those work requirements [from 54] up to age 59,” Samples said. “Ultimately the reason that I have been involved with this issue for many years and that the FGA and the Opportunity Solutions project is involved is that work gives individuals dignity. Employment gives an individual community. 

“We’re talking about giving people hope and an opportunity to better their lives,” Samples said. “In West Virginia, and you all know many of our statistics, we struggle with a lack of hope.”

West Virginia has poor rankings for workforce participation, poor mental health days, drug overdoses, adults reporting poor health, diabetes, obesity, middle age death rate, foster care rates, grandparents raising grandchildren, Samples noted.

“The bottom line is that West Virginia is caught in a vicious cycle where individuals and communities, they do not have the resources available to them to get into the workforce, nor the expectation,” Samples said. “A mandatory SNAP E&T program lays out an expectation as counsel laid out but it also provides individuals with resources.”

Samples said the legislation would have a “negligible” impact on the state’s overall workforce participation rate. 

Caitlin Cook, director of advocacy and public policy for Mountaineer Food Bank, said the redundant work requirements in the bill would add stress to the state’s charitable food network. The organization opposes the legislation, she said. 

Some states that have had a mandatory work and training program have changed their programs to voluntary because they did not meet their employment and self-sufficiency goals, she said. 

“We know in those other states that have mandatory SNAP E&T programs, it’s both increasing food insecurity as well as not achieving the intended outcome of the SNAP E&T program, which is to connect people with tools, resources and opportunities to achieve self-sufficiency, and in turn no longer need food assistance through SNAP or the charitable food network,” Cook said. 

Mandatory SNAP E&T programs also typically struggle to meet federal regulations and increase bureaucracy, she said. 

The bill will next be considered by the Senate Finance Committee.