Food Stamp Rolls Shrink in May, Continuing Trend

The number of Americans collecting food stamps fell again in May, continuing a trend that began in mid-1994 after four years of growth swelled the rolls of the government’s largest welfare program to record highs.

The Clinton Administration used the latest participation rates, released Friday, to suggest that the President’s economic policies were responsible for shrinking the food stamp rolls.

A conservative Republican, Sen. Lauch Faircloth of North Carolina, disputed those claims, calling them “ridiculous” and saying welfare reforms under way in the states that require recipients to work for their benefits are responsible for moving people off food stamps.

“This is what we’ve said all along. Any time you put recipients to work, people will abandon food stamps,” Faircloth said.

According to the Agriculture Department, 26.47 million people were receiving food stamps in May, compared to 27.5 million a year ago. May’s participation rates were also down from April, 1995, when there were 26.73 million people on the rolls.

The department said May was the 10th month in a row in which food stamp participation rates were lower when compared to a year ago.

The shrinking rolls have saved taxpayers $400 million since August, said Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman. The program spends $23 billion a year on benefits.

“This clear reversal of the program growth that occurred between 1989 and 1994 is a tangible sign that the Administration’s economic policies are working,” Glickman said.

Glickman also said the numbers illustrate the “economic responsiveness” and flexibility of the food stamp program, which pays benefits to anyone whose income and family circumstances meet the eligibility rules.

Faircloth and Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, are pushing to end the entitlement to food stamps with a bill that sweeps away 150 anti-poverty programs and turns responsibility for the poor over to the states.

Their bill, which has the backing of 24 other Republicans, would create nine block grants dealing with food and nutrition issues, cash welfare, foster care, child care, aid to disabled children, job training and housing assistance.

Unwed teen-age mothers, children born to mothers already on welfare, and families that have failed to establish paternity for their children would be barred from receiving cash support. New immigrants would not be allowed to receive welfare.