[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 53 (Wednesday, March 27, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H2833-H2834]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            DIGNITY, OPPORTUNITY, AND AMERICAN VALUE OF WORK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
South Dakota (Mr. Johnson) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JOHNSON of South Dakota. Mr. Speaker, I grew up in a large 
working-class family in central South Dakota. I suppose there were some 
years when we were more poor than we were working class. But I want to 
make it clear, my parents worked hard every single day. So did I, and 
so did my brother and my sisters.
  Even with that hard work, there were times when we needed help from 
government to get by. I am who I am today because of the experiences of 
both welfare and hard work.
  Government assistance can help meet people's basic needs. We all know 
that. But on its own, welfare alone means surviving just barely on the 
edges. Welfare can meet short-term basic needs, but education and 
work--yes, education and work--they deliver long-term hope and dignity 
and purpose and opportunity.
  That brings me, today, to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance 
Program, SNAP. Many of us call it food stamps. I know this program well 
from a number of personal and professional experiences.
  Most of you probably know that, under Federal law, able-bodied 
nonseniors--people between the ages of 18 and 50--who don't have 
children at home are required to work or train or volunteer or go to 
school for 20 hours a week to receive their benefits.
  To most Americans, these work requirements are common sense, just as 
they were when they were passed, in 1986, into law in a bipartisan 
manner. They are common sense because work isn't punishment. Work is 
opportunity.
  Unfortunately, over the years, some States have used gimmicks and 
loopholes to trigger waivers. Those waivers water down the work 
requirements that we have been talking about. These, I am sure, well-
intentioned but misguided efforts, mean that one-third of our country 
lives in an area with no work requirements.
  Today, despite a record-high 7 million job openings, we have 2.7 
million SNAP recipients who can work but who aren't. There is a better 
way, I am happy to say, and I want to tell you about it.
  A few years ago, because of State waivers, too many Arkansans were 
not experiencing the kind of dignity and opportunity that comes from 
work, so Arkansas changed course. They put their work requirements back 
into place, and the results were breathtaking. They were impressive.
  People who left the program because they didn't work or didn't train 
or didn't volunteer ended up better off than they were on welfare. 
Necessity pushed them into a job path that brought them more resources 
than welfare alone could ever provide.
  With all of those people moving off the welfare rolls and into the 
workplace, they were earning money, and the State saw its revenues go 
up.
  That kind of success can, and is, happening elsewhere. When Maine 
reimplemented work requirements, incomes of former enrollees more than 
doubled and caseloads declined by 90 percent.
  These results show all of us how important it is for us to close 
these loopholes. USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue should be commended for 
his efforts to do just that through a proposed rule, making sure that 
food stamp recipients are encouraged and rewarded for their work.

[[Page H2834]]

  I want to make very clear, these actions are not about taking aid 
away from areas that are struggling with high unemployment. There are 
clear exceptions for those areas. Instead, this is about prompting more 
States and more citizens to experience the successes that have been 
experienced by Maine and by Arkansas.
  We all know that every one of us does better, every single one of us 
does better, when we are pushed, when we are moved past our comfort 
level. Growth requires effort. That is true in athletics; that is true 
in academics; that is true in raising children; and that is true in all 
other areas of life as well. Denying millions of able-bodied SNAP 
recipients that push, that growth, also denies them a chance at a 
better future.
  In States where work requirements have been reinstituted, a clearer 
path out of poverty has reemerged. We have to do that elsewhere. We 
have to do that everywhere.
  I close today, Mr. Speaker, by saying that work has dignity; work is 
opportunity; and work is an American value.

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