Proposed bill would restrict food stamp eligibility

A bill sponsored by Sen. Fred Thomas, R-Stevensville, that would restrict eligibility for food stamps in Montana ran into considerable opposition Feb. 16, including food bank officials, advocates for the poor and the hungry, and the Bullock administration.

Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services director Richard Opper joined more than a dozen opponents testifying against Senate Bill 206, which would place new restrictions on who could qualify for the federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

“There are people with legitimate needs who will not get services (with this bill),” Opper said. “We think this will result in people suffering.”

SB 206 would waive work requirements for able-bodied, childless adults who get food stamps only in high-unemployment areas. Thomas presented the bill to the Senate Public Health Committee, which took no immediate action on the measure.

The bill also would forbid the state from seeking any new “waivers” from the federal government to expand the eligibility of food stamps, which serve 125,000 people in Montana.

“The point of this bill is not to eliminate the program but to dial it in and continue to focus Montana’s precious public dollars on the most needy in our society, and not just expand it out there to … the wide net of anyone who’s just walking around,” Thomas said.

Food bank directors said the effect would be to take food stamps away from people who need the benefit, forcing them to go to food banks for assistance.

“There is no evidence that it would have any impact other than making it more difficult for low-income Montanans to get the benefits for which they qualify,” said Gayle Gifford, CEO of the Montana Food Bank Network in Missoula.

Thomas’ bill is one of several Republicans propose for reforming health care and welfare in the state. A House committee on Feb. 16 heard a separate bill that would restrict who can qualify for Healthy Montana Kids, a program that provides health coverage to children in low-income households.