WASHINGTON (AP) — Work requirements for federal aid programs have emerged as a sticking point in ongoing negotiations over raising the nation’s debt ceiling, and President Joe Biden has signaled openness to a possible compromise even as many in his party have balked.
WASHINGTON Work requirements for federal aid programs have emerged as a sticking point in ongoing negotiations over raising the nation’s debt ceiling, and President Joe Biden has signaled openness to a possible compromise even as many in his party have balked.
Legislation passed by the House in April would impose new or expanded work requirements for three federal programs — the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the food aid formerly known as food stamps; Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which offers aid to low-income families with children; and Medicaid assistance for adults without dependents.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is insisting that the proposed work requirements be part of negotiations with Biden over raising the debt limit and avoiding a national default. While Biden has signaled that making any changes to benefits for Medicaid is a non-starter, he has been less clear when asked about House GOP proposals to strengthen work requirements for SNAP and TANF.
Asked Wednesday about his openness on work requirements, Biden told reporters “there could be a few others” but “not anything of any consequence.”
A look at the work requirements, who they could affect and the politics behind them:
THE HOUSE BILL
Republicans have for years tried to boost work requirements for federal aid and Democrats have been mostly successful in holding them off. McCarthy has said that there will be no deal this time if Democrats don’t agree to changes.
Creating new work requirements for Medicaid would create the most savings out of the GOP work proposals, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office — $109 billion over the next decade. The Republican proposal would require for the first time that some able-bodied Medicaid recipients without dependents participate in work-related activities for at least 80 hours a month.
Biden said on Sunday that he will not accept anything that takes away people’s health care coverage.
“I voted for tougher aid programs that’s in the law now, but for Medicaid it’s a different story,” he said, referring to 1996 welfare reforms passed when he was in the Senate.
