White House: Work Requirements in Debt Bill Are ‘Onerous’

On Friday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Sound On,” White House Council of Economic Advisers member Heather Boushey said that it is crucial that veterans and homeless people were spared the “onerous work requirements” for SNAP benefits in the debt limit and that it appears as though access to food stamps will increase on the whole, but estimates at this point are “very, both preliminary and subject to variance.”

Boushey said, [relevant remarks begin around 4:30] “Listen, the important thing here is that the president focused on maintaining his priorities. And certainly, making sure that veterans have access, that homeless folks have access to food stamps was an important priority. And making sure that — as we worked through this process — that his priorities were frontloaded as things that he was protecting as a part of this bipartisan agreement.”

Host Joe Mathieu then asked, “But that is accurate, right, that access to the SNAP program has actually been expanded in the end here, net, net?”

Boushey answered, “Yes. And — I mean, I think that that is what it looks like. Certainly, this is — it’s important to remind your listeners that this is a relatively small part of the U.S. population. And so, any estimates are, of course, very, both preliminary and subject to variance. But what is really important is that those folks who are veterans, those folks who are homeless do not have to deal with this — onerous work requirements.”

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