Thursday, the Trump administration announced a plan to revamp and improve the laws and rules surrounding the eligibility for someone to receive food stamps.

The proposed plan would require food stamp recipients to work or be in training for work in order to qualify.

Fox News reports,

The USDA announced that the rule, which will apply to able-bodied adults without dependents, will restrict the ability of states to exempt recipients from having to hold a job to receive the benefits.

Currently, able-bodied recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) must work 20 hours a week or enroll in job training to maintain benefits, after their first three months in the program. But states can waive the requirement if their unemployment rates are above 10 percent or they show a demonstrable lack of jobs. States can also grant extensions of benefits for 15 percent of work-eligible adults without a waiver, and if they don’t use that waiver, they can bank the exemptions for later.

The new rule only allows waivers for specific cities or counties that have an unemployment rate of 7 percent or higher, and that waiver will be only eligible for one year. States can no longer bank exemptions and cannot grant waivers for geographic areas larger than a specific jurisdiction.

This bill was tied with a massive farm bill, which if you haven’t noticed is how Congress sneaks a lot of stuff in. They lump it in with something else – a lot of times completely unrelated.

ABC News expands on the bill saying,

The bipartisan bill Trump signed Thursday provides billions of dollars in assistance for farmers, research projects and mental health programs in addition to re-authorizing nutrition assistance programs and legalizing industrial hemp.

“These actions will save hardworking taxpayers $15 billion over 10 years and give President Trump comfort enough to support a farm bill he might otherwise have opposed,” he told reporters Wednesday night, citing the USDA estimate of how much money the program will save from people no longer eligible for the program.

This is something that has been overdue for some time now. The idea is good. It’s purposed to relieve dependency on government for assistance and motivates them to get up and provide for themselves. It greatly reduces the amount of abuse to the system as well.

Government assistance goes way too far to reward the wrong people. There was a time when I had a family member who didn’t work, who received food stamps, WIC, all kinds of government assistance and the reason this person told me they didn’t want to go out and get a job was because of how much they would lose. They would be worse off if they tried to get a job and get off of government assistance.

I’ll give you one more example. I again personally know someone who used to frequently eat steak, lobster, crab, etc. They would eat well, better than me. How? Because she had food stamps to cover most food, so if she spent a little of her earned money on steak and shrimp, she could.