Hunter
03/01/23
The Iowa GOP is advancing legislation that would put further restrictions on those who receive SNAP benefits.
The Gazette reports the measures would require an asset test for Iowans applying for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or more commonly known as food stamps, as well as for Medicaid, the joint federal and state program that finances health care coverage annually for roughly 805,000 low-income and disabled Iowans.
Iowa now requires recipients to meet an income threshold but does not restrict assets.
The measures propose the state Department of Health and Human Services enlist a private vendor to verify assets, identity and other eligibility requirements for hundreds of thousands of Iowans participating in public assistance programs involving federal and state benefits.
The legislation would limit household assets to $15,000, excluding one car and a second vehicle valued at less than $10,000. Income could be no more than $48,000 for a family of four.
Supporters of the bill say it’s necessary to weed out fraud, while opposers say fraud cases are low and pushed for evidence.
The paper says Senator Sarah Trone Garriott of West Des Moines argued the proposed changes would likely raise the state’s costs by increasing the amount of paperwork and administrative oversight, while callously taking food out of the mouths of tens of thousands of children, who represent one-third of the approximately 300,000 people in Iowa who experience food insecurity.