A Republican-backed bill that would change food stamp eligibility for able-bodied adults passed out of a House committee on Thursday. But opponents say such a change will exacerbate food insecurity for nearly all people receiving food assistance, including children and the elderly.

House Bill 367 from Rep. Wade Williams, R-Earlington, would require able-bodied adults on or applying for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to prove their total assets are below $2,750 in order to legally access that assistance.

Most states, including Kentucky, do not currently require an individual or household meet an asset requirement before being deemed eligible for SNAP, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service.

“We love SNAP,” Williams told the House Families and Children Committee Thursday before they approved the bill along party lines. “That’s why we’re here, we want to make sure that SNAP is available for all those people that need it.”

The bill, aimed at coaxing an estimated 34,000 able-bodied Kentuckians with no dependents to rejoin the workforce, would tack on this asset requirement by eliminating what’s known as the Broad-based Categorical Eligibility (BBCE) standard — a standard Williams called a “widely-abused loophole.”

Sign up for our Bluegrass Politics Newsletter

A must-read newsletter for political junkies across the Bluegrass State with reporting and analysis from the Lexington Herald-Leader. Never miss a story! Sign up for our Bluegrass Politics newsletter to connect with our reporting team and get behind-the-scenes insights, plus previews of the biggest stories.

That standard is the mechanism that deems an individual or household categorically eligible for SNAP benefits because they qualify for other assistance programs, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).

In other words, qualifying under current categorical eligibility standards streamlines the process of connecting Kentuckians living at or below the poverty level to federal assistance, like SNAP, by waiving an “asset test.”

Such a test would otherwise require recipients to prove their collective assets are below a specific threshold, in HB 367’s case, $2,750 for an individual with no dependents, before being able to access those benefits. It would also reduce the gross income threshold to qualify for SNAP benefits to 130% of the federal poverty level.

The bill also would revoke the Cabinet for Health and Family Services’ ability to waive those limits and loosen SNAP eligibility standards in times of “economic distress,” without permission from the General Assembly. This change would give the Legislature greater power over SNAP work requirements.

In other words, if the Cabinet, as it did during the COVID-19 pandemic, determines that economic conditions across the state or in a specific county are “severe enough” to grant SNAP waivers to individuals who might not otherwise qualify for those benefits, under this bill, the state agency would have to wait for the legislature to grant it permission.

That’s a process that, were it to happen outside of the regular session, would likely necessitate a special session.

To currently qualify for SNAP benefits in Kentucky, able-bodied adults earning at or below the poverty line are required to work, volunteer or train 20 hours a week. But Williams told committee members Thursday that roughly 34,000 able-bodied individual SNAP recipients are in violation of that rule, because of categorical eligibility.

Kentucky has more than 130,000 unfilled jobs with a labor force participation rate of just over 57%, he said, which is among the lowest in the country, according to the Kentucky Center for Statistics.

Williams’ proposal, as outlined in HB 367, is to nix the Broad-based Categorical Eligibility standard as a way to pull these few thousand Kentuckians “off the sidelines and back into the workforce.”

Scott Centorino, a lobbyist with Opportunity Solutions Project who joined Williams in introducing the bill, said it would “help protect this program for the truly needy.”

Opponents disagreed.

While the goal of the legislation is to target a few thousand Kentuckians, doing away with categorical eligibility will impact nearly all SNAP recipients, said Rep. Josie Raymond, D-Louisville.

“Rep. Williams, this bill would apply to all people who receive SNAP in Kentucky. Where do you believe it’s going to be really effective at only targeting adults who aren’t working who don’t have independents?”

Jordan Ogile, advocacy director for Feeding Kentucky, said roughly 580,000 Kentuckians — one-in-eight residents — are considered food insecure and receive SNAP benefits, he said.

“SNAP helps low-income individuals pay for food, spending that grocery elsewhere, on bills, or saving it.”

Requiring proof of under $2,750 implies that having more than that amount makes one food secure, which is misleading, Ogile said.

“That is not food secure. That is maybe a month’s worth of expenses,” he said, calling the bill “purposely restrictive to drive down what (bill proponents) deem as unnecessary usage,” and said it will create a “benefits cliff.”

“They don’t account for downstream harms,” Ogile added. “When more people are hungry, more people need health care.”

This change would also impact local farmers, said Community Farm Alliance’s Kimmie Ishmael.

When most local farmers start out, they earn between $26,000 and $28,000 a year and have to work multiple jobs, she said. “That also means they use safety net programs like SNAP. This would punish (farmers) for saving for the future.”

SNAP participation at farmer’s markets grew by 123% from 2014 to 2020, Ishmael noted.

“We truly need SNAP to keep our local food system intact. The small ripple effects of this bill will not only impact hungry people, but it’ll impact those who feed them.”

Democrats who voted against the bill called attention to the fact that argued this change will undercut SNAP recipients’ ability to regain any sort of financial stability, impacting children in families who receive these benefits and the elderly who may have assets but who have little monthly income, perpetuating their reliance on a program that is intended to be temporary.

But proponents of the bill said this will is just good housekeeping, and that the SNAP program is not designed to help people save money.

Committee chair Rep. Samara Heavrin, R-Leitchfield restated, “We are not ending SNAP. We are trying to get able-bodied Kentuckians back to work.”

The bill now heads to the House for floor votes.