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[Pages H2833-H2834]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
DIGNITY, OPPORTUNITY, AND AMERICAN VALUE OF WORK
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
South Dakota (Mr. Johnson) for 5 minutes.
Mr. JOHNSON of South Dakota. Mr. Speaker, I grew up in a large
working-class family in central South Dakota. I suppose there were some
years when we were more poor than we were working class. But I want to
make it clear, my parents worked hard every single day. So did I, and
so did my brother and my sisters.
Even with that hard work, there were times when we needed help from
government to get by. I am who I am today because of the experiences of
both welfare and hard work.
Government assistance can help meet people's basic needs. We all know
that. But on its own, welfare alone means surviving just barely on the
edges. Welfare can meet short-term basic needs, but education and
work--yes, education and work--they deliver long-term hope and dignity
and purpose and opportunity.
That brings me, today, to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program, SNAP. Many of us call it food stamps. I know this program well
from a number of personal and professional experiences.
Most of you probably know that, under Federal law, able-bodied
nonseniors--people between the ages of 18 and 50--who don't have
children at home are required to work or train or volunteer or go to
school for 20 hours a week to receive their benefits.
To most Americans, these work requirements are common sense, just as
they were when they were passed, in 1986, into law in a bipartisan
manner. They are common sense because work isn't punishment. Work is
opportunity.
Unfortunately, over the years, some States have used gimmicks and
loopholes to trigger waivers. Those waivers water down the work
requirements that we have been talking about. These, I am sure, well-
intentioned but misguided efforts, mean that one-third of our country
lives in an area with no work requirements.
Today, despite a record-high 7 million job openings, we have 2.7
million SNAP recipients who can work but who aren't. There is a better
way, I am happy to say, and I want to tell you about it.
A few years ago, because of State waivers, too many Arkansans were
not experiencing the kind of dignity and opportunity that comes from
work, so Arkansas changed course. They put their work requirements back
into place, and the results were breathtaking. They were impressive.
People who left the program because they didn't work or didn't train
or didn't volunteer ended up better off than they were on welfare.
Necessity pushed them into a job path that brought them more resources
than welfare alone could ever provide.
With all of those people moving off the welfare rolls and into the
workplace, they were earning money, and the State saw its revenues go
up.
That kind of success can, and is, happening elsewhere. When Maine
reimplemented work requirements, incomes of former enrollees more than
doubled and caseloads declined by 90 percent.
These results show all of us how important it is for us to close
these loopholes. USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue should be commended for
his efforts to do just that through a proposed rule, making sure that
food stamp recipients are encouraged and rewarded for their work.
[[Page H2834]]
I want to make very clear, these actions are not about taking aid
away from areas that are struggling with high unemployment. There are
clear exceptions for those areas. Instead, this is about prompting more
States and more citizens to experience the successes that have been
experienced by Maine and by Arkansas.
We all know that every one of us does better, every single one of us
does better, when we are pushed, when we are moved past our comfort
level. Growth requires effort. That is true in athletics; that is true
in academics; that is true in raising children; and that is true in all
other areas of life as well. Denying millions of able-bodied SNAP
recipients that push, that growth, also denies them a chance at a
better future.
In States where work requirements have been reinstituted, a clearer
path out of poverty has reemerged. We have to do that elsewhere. We
have to do that everywhere.
I close today, Mr. Speaker, by saying that work has dignity; work is
opportunity; and work is an American value.
____________________
