U.S. Exempts 1,000 Counties, Cities From Welfare Reform Law’s Food Stamp Cutoff

The Clinton administration has declared more than 1,000 American counties and cities with high unemployment rates to be at least temporarily exempt from one of the first of the welfare reforms enacted by Congress--a cutoff of food stamps to unemployed adults who are able-bodied and childless.

As a result, close to 1 million food stamp recipients in California and 40 other states have reprieves from the prospect of losing a significant source of their income.

Under the law enacted by Congress last year to overhaul the nation’s welfare programs, able-bodied, childless adults who are not working or enrolled in a welfare-to-work program may receive food stamps for only three months in any three-year period. The first round of cutoffs was to have taken effect as of March 1.

But many states are arguing that they have neither the jobs nor the job-preparation programs that would allow recipients to remain eligible for food stamps. They flooded the Agriculture Department, which runs the food stamp program, with their appeals.

During the past few weeks, the department has approved the bulk of the appeals. In California, where some appeals have been approved and others are pending, recipients are continuing to get food stamps under the old rules.

The delay in implementing the tough new policy suggests that states are struggling to keep up with the rapid pace of reform demanded of them in the sweeping welfare legislation passed last August.

That has created widespread consternation among the lawmakers who drafted the measure. One has warned that if states don’t step up their efforts to get food stamp recipients into workplaces and off the rolls, Congress might tighten the law.

In all, states have sought waivers that would cover 191 cities, 104 Indian reservations and as many as 887 counties--almost 30% of the nation’s counties. Some states, including Rhode Island and Maryland, have declared all of their counties to be areas where jobs are so scarce that they should be exempt from the law’s requirements.

In Illinois, Republican Gov. Jim Edgar--who has been reforming welfare in his state since 1993--asked the federal government to exempt almost half of the state’s counties, as well as all of Chicago and its outlying communities. That move could maintain food stamps for 52,000 people for another year.

Ohio, the home state of the two congressmen who drafted the food stamp provision, has sought waivers for 20 counties and 12 cities.

After intensive lobbying from hard-pressed counties, Gov. Pete Wilson has sought waivers for all 58 California counties--a move that could affect 43,000 recipients statewide. Twenty-six counties have already received approval.

The Clinton administration, which had opposed cutting off food stamps, has approved 11 of 41 requests in full. It has accepted parts of another 20 states’ applications and asked for more information about the remaining parts.

The Agriculture Department official in charge of the program said her department was sympathetic to the plight of states seeking waivers.

“I do think most states are very concerned about trying to move people into jobs but did not feel the three-month time limit gave them adequate time to do so,” said Yvette Jackson, deputy administrator of the food stamp program. “Many are going to continue very diligently to try to place people into jobs, but both they and recipients needed more time.”

Jackson said it remained unclear how many of the approximately 1 million food stamp recipients who stood to lose benefits would continue to get them under the provisional waivers states receive when they apply.

It is clear that the wave of exemption requests will mean less in federal savings from food stamps than originally hoped. The projected one-year savings from the cuts has been reduced from an earlier estimate of $26 billion to $22 billion. But once all the waivers are granted and states determine how they will use them, savings could be reduced further.

That strains the patience of Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), an author of the food stamp measure. He charged that many of the states that had sought exemptions hunkered down during the debate, hoping welfare reform would go away. Now that its first step is here, he said, states are “panicked,” and many are doing all they can to wiggle out of their obligations.

“We just can’t say, ‘Wow! We just can’t do it,’ ” Ney said. “The American people aren’t going to tolerate that. We’ve got to have the tough-love concept and help these people move into a working situation. . . . And I would ask states, ‘If you don’t have a workfare program, why not?’ ”

Meanwhile, the Clinton administration has pressed Congress to ease the provision on food stamps, allowing unemployed but able-bodied childless people to draw benefits for six months of every year if they cannot find work. The White House also has proposed adding $280 million over six years to provide training and workfare slots for this population, 40% of whom do not have high school diplomas.

Ney cautioned that the administration was risking sending Congress in the opposite direction.

“Congress is not going to sit there and say, ‘Oh well, we passed welfare reform for show,’ ” he said. “This has very little to do with dollars.”