John,

President Biden just announced that he won’t agree to the extremist GOP’s plans to cut Medicaid funding by implementing draconian work requirements that would result in millions of people losing their health insurance.¹

This is a bold and necessary move and we, and our coalition partners, applaud him for it. But there is still more to be done. President Biden must come out strongly and announce that work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) are also off the table.

These work requirements will do nothing to improve the economy—and studies have found that such rules do NOT result in increased work. Here’s what a team of researchers concluded about SNAP’s harsh time limits for those who can’t meet the work rules: “We found that the policy doesn’t make people more likely to find a job or make more money, but it does make Americans who could use help buying groceries less likely to get it.”²  

This is consistent with research about TANF and Medicaid as well. All of these restrictions will only bring pain and suffering on millions of people and their communities. And it will be Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities that will be hit the hardest.

Due to centuries of racial discrimination in employment, housing, education, and several other fields, communities of color have a higher poverty rate than white communities. They’re enrolled in SNAP, TANF, and Medicaid at significantly higher rates, which is why these programs are so vital—they play a huge role in alleviating racial disparities.

President Biden has stated publicly that he will oppose proposals that push people into poverty. It is demonstrably clear: placing such hurdles in all three programs—SNAP, TANF, and Medicaid—will make millions of people poorer. We have to press this point with Congress. Please help!

Send a message to your senators, demanding they reject the House-passed bill that would gut funding to critical services, disproportionately harming communities of color. Blocking the extreme GOP wishlist is a matter of racial and economic justice. We cannot allow communities that have been hit with centuries of discrimination to continue to face unnecessary hardship.

Not only are these work requirements cruel, they’re completely unnecessary. The majority of working age people without disabilities who receive SNAP benefits are working or have worked recently. They just happen to work in unstable, low-paying jobs. SNAP benefits help them fill in the gaps between what they earn and the rising cost of groceries. It also frees up more money in their paychecks for housing and medical costs.³

The House GOP bill would expand the already harsh work reporting requirements in SNAP to include people aged 50 through 55—putting nutritional assistance of nearly 1 million people at risk. In addition, further restrictions in the notoriously stingy Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (TANF) are likely to deny minimal income support to one million poor children.

Under the Trump administration, Arkansas instituted work requirements for Medicaid, and the result was that 18,000 people lost their health insurance.⁴ If that plan is instituted nationwide, nearly 21 million people would be at risk. We can’t allow that to happen.

Health care, food, income support and housing are basic human needs that should not be dependent upon a person’s ability to work. These are critical programs that are already severely underfunded and the last thing we should do—as the richest country in the world—is force vulnerable people to jump through more hoops to get the care and support they need.

Join us in sending a message to the Senate: Reject the House-passed bill that cuts funding to vital programs.

Thank you for all you do to support human needs programs,

Deborah Weinstein
Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs

¹ President Joe Biden “21 million Americans would be at risk of losing Medicaid under the House Republican wish list. It’s not right. My budget proposes an alternative: We protect and strengthen Medicaid – by making big corporations pay their fair share.” May 15, 2023 10:00AM Tweet
² SNAP work requirements don’t actually get more people working – but they do drastically limit the availability of food aid
³ SNAP Is and Remains Our Most Effective Tool to Combat Hunger
⁴ States’ Experiences Confirm Harmful Effects of Medicaid Work Requirements