Press Releases

On Thursday, the House passed the Nutrition and Work Opportunity Act, H.R. 3102, a bill that reforms and strengthens our nation’s nutrition programs while saving taxpayers $40 billion.

 Representative Larry Bucshon, M.D. (IN-8) released the following statement regarding the passage of H.R. 3102:

“Today the House voted to reform our nation’s vital nutrition programs to protect the Americans who rely on and qualify for assistance,” said Bucshon. “This bill ensures that anyone who meets the qualifications for nutrition assistance receives their benefits, while eliminating costly waste, fraud, and abuse to protect the integrity of the program.  We protect the modest work requirements for able-bodied adults without children and help to equip them with new job skills and experience. These common sense reforms save the American people $40 billion and passage of this bill is the next necessary step to pass a farm bill to provide certainty for our nation’s families.”

Highlights of the bill courtesy of the office of Speaker John Boehner (Speaker’s Blog; 9/19/13):

• Preventing states from waiving work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents who receive SNAP benefits, and requires these adults to work at least 20 hours per week to be eligible for benefits (saves $19 billion);
• Eliminating auto-enrollment into SNAP under so-called “categorical eligibility,” ensuring that only those who are eligible for benefits receive them (saves $11.5 billion);
• Encouraging state governments to help recipients find work, which helps them gain new skills and experience – and therefore better wages and less of a need for taxpayer-funded benefits;
• Closing loopholes used to artificially inflate welfare rolls, and eliminating waste and fraud by requiring states to delete old, unused balances on benefit cards and permitting them to investigate retailer fraud (saves more than $8.69 billion); 
• Denying benefits to anyone convicted of murder, rape, or child molestation, and permitting states to conduct drug tests on applicants as a condition of eligibility;
• Ensuring the safety net for our nation’s poor has a sustainable path forward, without precluding individuals from applying for other benefits or services that they may need.