Lazaro Aleman: Greene Publishing, Inc.
A bill working its way through the Florida Legislature could cut off food stamps to nearly 230,000 residents -- including children and seniors. House Bill 581, titled Family Self-Sufficiency, aims to return the eligibility standard for food stamps to pre-recession levels, according to a report in the Tampa Bay Times.
The 11-page bill, which Republican freshman State Representative Frank White, of Pensacola introduced, seeks to return the income eligibility for a household to 130 percent of the poverty level, a 70 percent reduction from the current 200 percent of the poverty level that the federal government established during the Great Recession to help low-income families. The proposed reduction, if approved, would mean that a family of four that earns more than $2,633 monthly would be ineligible for food stamps. Whereas now, under the 200 percent of poverty level standard, a family can earn up to $4,050 monthly and still be eligible.
Although the federal government funds the food stamp program, states share in the program’s administrative costs, and state legislators exercise a certain amount of control over the eligibility requirements. According to the Times article, about 3.3 million Floridians were enrolled in the food stamp program in November, 1.8 million of them children.
“I think every tax dollar is sacred,” the Times quotes White as saying during the committee hearing on his bill. “We should spend those tax dollars as if they are our own.”
White’s bill proposes taking $300,000 in federal grant money and using it to pay a private vendor to develop a system to verify a family’s assets to prevent fraud.
If approved, the bill would take effect July 1, 2018.