WASHINGTON, March 2, 2016 - Agriculture
Secretary Tom Vilsack used his address this week to the 2016 National
Anti-Hunger Policy Conference to sharply criticize GOP lawmakers who are
rallying behind drug testing for Americans who receive Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.
“The stated reason is that ‘We’re compassionate,
we want to help,’” Vilsack said of the Republicans in support of drug testing.
“Really? That’s the reason? Because if that were the reason, Congress would be
appropriating right now additional resources to deal with the tremendous gap in
services for mental health and substance abuse,” Vilsack said.
“Folks, we have to… call these people on
this notion. We have to say, ‘Don’t tell us this is how to show compassion,” he
said.
Out of the $111.9 billion requested for USDA
nutrition programs in President Barack Obama’s proposed
budget for fiscal 2017, about $88 billion would go to SNAP. In 2017, USDA
expects SNAP will serve about 44.5 million people, about 80 percent of whom are
senior citizens, disabled, in the workforce, or children.
Congressional Republicans have long called
for budget cuts to USDA nutrition programs and SNAP has consistently been among
their top priorities for reforms.
Since the start of 2015, the House
Agriculture Committee has held at least 10 hearings on SNAP. Top Republicans,
including House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., have advocated for block-granting
SNAP, which would give states significantly more flexibility – and less
accountability, Vilsack said – in how they spend federal SNAP dollars.
And a few weeks ago, Rep. Robert Aderholt,
R-Ala., the chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on
Agriculture, introduced a bill that would allow states to drug test SNAP
recipients and revoke eligibility for the program based on the results.
The bill – H.R.
4540 – would keep the federal government from
“enabling people to fund their drug addiction at taxpayer expense,” Aderholt
says, and would add “a compassionate tone” to
drug testing by allowing states to utilize a nationwide pool of $600 million
annually for the drug treatment of SNAP recipients. The bill’s cosponsors are
all Republicans: Mark Meadows of North Carolina, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Kevin
Cramer of North Dakota and Andy Harris of Maryland.
Aderholt said after his panel met
last Monday that he’d “like to see states” require
those who test positive for drug use to go through drug treatment and once
again be eligible for SNAP. But in his legislation, there is no mandate for
states to use any federal funding for drug treatment, or to allow previously
ineligible people to re-enroll in SNAP.
Based on USDA regulations and current drug
testing law – most of which was established by Congress in 1996 – only
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients and SNAP
beneficiaries that have prior drug felony convictions can be tested for drugs
without probable cause.
Vilsack blamed Congress’ willingness to
embrace drug-testing regulations for food assistance on “think tanks,” which he
said “pore over statistics and data” on programs like SNAP.
“I for one am tired of the
conversation in this country that seems to divide those that struggle from those
who have succeeded,” he said. “We are a healthier, stronger, better nation, a
more compassionate nation, because we have programs like SNAP.”
#30
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