GOP wins welfare work requirements in debt ceiling fight.

The Debt Ceiling Debate: Changes to Welfare Work Requirements

When it comes to the debt ceiling debate and negotiations between President Joe Biden and the Republican-led House of Representatives, both sides were firmly entrenched and resistant to budging on the issue of work requirements to qualify for social benefits. However, changes were made to welfare work requirements, and as was the case with the broader Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 bill that the House passed, 314-117, in mid-evening on May 31, it was an area in which the White House and the GOP each claimed victory.

Following the Senate approving the bill, 63-36, in a late-night vote on June 1, the act now heads to the desk of Biden. With his signature, the president will prevent the nation from defaulting on its debt.

Changes to Work Requirements

In the lower chamber of Congress, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and his team won changes that would strengthen and increase work requirements in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly called Food Stamps, and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), formerly called Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). Biden held firm on Medicaid and was able to preserve the program as a social benefit that does not require a recipient to work.

Presently, under SNAP regulations, an able-bodied adult who is under 50 and does not live with dependent children cannot receive more than three months of benefits in a 36-month period unless the adult works or attends training for at least 80 hours per month. That requirement can be waived, under the direction of the state in which the recipient resides, if there is a shortage of jobs in the state.

In 2024, the Biden-McCarthy agreement would raise the work requirement age for able-bodied adults who do not live with dependent children to include those 50 to 52 years old. The following year, the requirement would increase to 54 years old. Those who would be exempt are the homeless, military veterans, and 18- to 24-year-olds who were living in foster care when they turned 18.

Also, under the Biden-McCarthy bill, the allowable exemptions a state can use to qualify people for SNAP benefits are reduced from the present level of 12 percent to 8 percent of the total caseload. The changes have an end date of Oct. 1, 2030.

The TANF law now on the books allows states discretion in designing benefit programs. At least 50 percent of those receiving benefits must be working, but a state can reduce that minimum standard based on the percentage of caseloads it has brought down since 2005. If, for example, the state has reduced its caseloads by 10 percent since 2005, then only 40 percent of families would need to meet the threshold.

When Biden signs the bill, a new structure will be created—that the states have two years to implement—which will establish 2015 as the comparison year and will result in more states having to increase their work requirements. States can reduce the work requirement level by upping the amount of money they contribute to the benefit pool.

McCarthy Leads Successful Effort

McCarthy can rightly claim that on the House side, he stewarded one of the most significant debt deals and spending cuts in U.S. history, even as Biden successfully protected certain progressive priorities.

Following the House vote, McCarthy, flanked by members of his leadership team, addressed the media and explained that even though Biden would only bargain on a small area of the budget—what the speaker described as 11 percent of the total—Republicans still delivered.

“But in that 11 percent, not only did we give you the greatest savings in American history; there’s going to be people who were on welfare today that will no longer be on welfare,” said McCarthy. “They will find a job because of the work requirement. Their self-worth, their attitudes, are gonna change. They’re going to believe in themselves. They’re going to be able to buy a house, send their kids to college, because of the vote we took tonight.”

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the debt ceiling at the White House in Washington on May 9, 2023. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

A YouGov poll dated Jan. 5–9, 2023, revealed that 68 percent of U.S. adults believe that welfare recipients should be required to work or be involved in job training, with 83 percent of Republicans, 64 percent of Democrats, and 61 percent of independents supporting the work mandate.

Conservatives are fond of pointing out that even Biden supports welfare work requirements. And while the debate over the debt ceiling and welfare work requirements may have been contentious, the changes made to the system will have a lasting impact on the lives of those who receive social benefits.