Hunter
04/20/26
A new piece of research from a left-leaning entity says that new stricter work requirements for SNAP beneficiaries won’t enhance employment and will push more people off food assistance.
Iowa Capital Dispatch reports the research from The Hamilton Project, an economic policy initiative at the left-leaning Brookings Institution, comes at a time of major upheaval for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Participation is already declining as states implement changes mandated by the president’s major tax and domestic policy law enacted last summer.
Since the fall, states and counties that administer SNAP have been notifying residents who rely on food stamps that they must meet work requirements or lose their food assistance. Those changes affected exemptions to work requirements for older adults, homeless people, veterans and some rural residents, among others.
Known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the law mandated cuts to social service programs, including Medicaid and food stamps.
Lauren Bauer, an associate director at the Hamilton Project, says while food stamps reach millions of people each year, the program’s work requirements have proven ineffective, confusing and burdensome. She concluded that SNAP should be exclusively an anti-hunger program, and workforce development, career training and job searches shouldn’t be associated with it.
The full article from Iowa Capital Dispatch is available below.