Posted on 01/19/2020 9:00:52 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Calling it “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion” and contrary to law, 14 states, New York City and Washington, D.C., asked a federal court in a lawsuit Thursday to vacate a final rule that if implemented will cut off nearly 700,000 people from food stamp benefits due to the imposition of stricter requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents.
“Plaintiffs respectfully request that this Court vacate the Rule and enjoin its implementation because it is arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and otherwise not in accordance with law under the Administrative Procedure…because the Rule was promulgated without observance of procedure required by law,” said the suit seeking to protect food stamp benefits for the at-risk group through the program formally known as the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program.
The lawsuit was joined by attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Virginia.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue told reporters on a call last month that the final rule, which is expected to be fully implemented in 2021, will move more able-bodied food stamp recipients toward self-sufficiency and into employment.
“Americans are generous people who believe it is their responsibility to help their fellow citizens when they encounter a difficult stretch. Government can be a powerful force for good, but government dependency has never been the American dream. We need to encourage people by giving them a helping hand but not allowing it to become an indefinitely giving hand,” Perdue said in his remarks on the final rule, which he said was made at the direction of President Donald Trump.
Able-bodied adults between the ages of 18 and 49 without dependents are restricted under federal law to three months of benefits within a 36-month period unless they work at least 20 hours a week or participate in certain educational or job-training activities.
Current USDA regulations allow for states to waive the work requirement if the area's unemployment rate is 20 percent higher than the national rate. The new rule, which will not apply to children and their parents, those older than 50, senior citizens, those with a disability, or pregnant women, will allow states to waive the work requirement only in areas where the unemployment rate is above 7 percent.
The lawsuit argues that the new rule upends a longstanding USDA policy that gave states discretion to seek waivers from the SNAP work requirements for areas within each state that lacked sufficient jobs for benefits recipients.
“The statute and the USDA’s prior regulations recognize that States are in the best position to evaluate local economic circumstances and to determine where there are insufficient job opportunities such that work requirements would be ineffective. The new Rule eliminates State discretion and criteria regarding local economic conditions for waiving work requirements, resulting in the termination of essential food assistance for benefits recipients who live in areas with insufficient jobs,” the state and local government officials argue in the lawsuit.
The states raised several other objections to the rule, noting that it: virtually eliminates states’ ability to use data other than unemployment rates to demonstrate a lack of sufficient jobs for able-bodied adults without dependents; creates a new criterion that Congress recently rejected for receiving a waiver, namely, an unemployment threshold that is unrelated to local job opportunities for able-bodied adults without dependents; and requires states to rely on unemployment numbers for the entire population rather than on the availability of employment for ABAWDs or on other metrics that more fully capture local economic conditions.
It was further noted that the rule also unlawfully limits states’ authority to carry forward unused exemptions — a longstanding protection for states that Congress reaffirmed in 2018.
“The Rule unequivocally runs afoul of Congress’s intent to ensure food security for low-income individuals and to permit States, who have a better understanding of their labor markets and economic conditions, to apply for waivers and use exemptions where local or individual circumstances warrant relief from the ABAWD time limit,” the plaintiffs argue.
By all means, let’s keep the Plantations open and well stocked with dependent subjects. Operating expenses supplied by the labor and treasure of others, of course.
Needless to say some Obola appointee will be outraged to hear that people are being required to work for their daily bread and,well...you know...
For proof one can google,among many other things, "Commonwealth Day School" and "Cambridge" and see how the elite of Harvard (yah,*that* Harvard) reacted when children "of color" were spotted in their neighborhood.Among the elitists who openly fought their presence were Julia Child and Laurence Tribe (the finest Supreme Court justice we never had-ROTFL!).
And in covering that very ugly little drama kudos must be sent out to the Harvard Crimson...Harvard's student newspaper.They were all over it!
Hmmmmm, let me guess. This case has probably been “randomly” assigned to an obama judge or another judge with a history of progressive activism on the bench.
stricter requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents
So whats there excuse?
Need to cash in food stamps for cash at the local bodega, for drugs, booze, lotto, hoes or other gambling indevours
My worthless stepson moved out in the middle of the night because he wouldn’t comply with our simple rules of helping us with daily chores prior to, or after he got off work.
About a year later he comes slinking his sorry ass back home. He got fired from every job and went down and got on foid stamps. He was 19 and in grear health.
I took his benefit card from him and cut it up.
Because nudging otherwise able bodied adults to get off the cans.. and get a job.. is just mean.
Once again, he’s simply enforcing the rules that are already on the books.
*Any more than 3% authorized by same authorizing practitioner of total in a geographical area will trigger a review by an agency, and if malfeasance / fraud is found the aforementioned practitioner will be remanded for trial and if found guilty and serve 5 years for each infraction, at which time will be incarcerated and required to adjudicate physical exams for those claiming disability.
Those attempting to defraud the people of the United States will be made available for WPA and NRA (see new deal. circa 1930's) projects for a period of not less than 4 years and not more than 10 years. At which time they will be enrolled in a skills training program. Malingering will add not more that 6 months to sentence. (per iteration.)
Food Stamps are the ‘gateway drug’ of the welfare system. Once you are on food stamps you are eligible for a free cell phone, free internet and all kinds of other benefits. These benefits are administered by state and local government employees. The more beneficiaries, the more employees are needed.
This is why cutting the food stamp rolls is not seen as a good thing.
Maine passed a similar rule under the great Pail Lepage- I think it is now a requirement in Maine?
I wonder how “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion” they would feel if it was not federal money but their own State taxes they had to spend on these freeloaders?
Here we have a good job environment and still these able bodied youth cant seem to accomplish anything beyond cashing in their free ride.
Yet this past retirement old fart still works.
Maine had the law and the lousy libtard piece of crap Governor was elected and overturned it. Now we have millennials picking pot buds getting paid in cash and on the dole. Liberalism is a mental dusorder.
Dang- obama put out of work people on disability- disability! They were able bodied people, but they still got disability- while truly disabled people get scrutinized and kicked off-
Bob Denver playing Maynard G. Krebs the beatnik loafer in The Dobie Gillis TV show:
Work?!?!!
President Trump has done the job of making full employment a reality. There’s no reason why an able bodied adult without dependents can’t work.
OREGON ping. Yes...knew Oregon would be one
I feel sorry for the truly disabled.
Versus the millions of phonies who were stiff and sore years ago when tested for benefits coverage and now go on bicycle trips to the lake and have a picnic, go home and rake leaves and mow the lawn before a night of TV. Big day.
Next booth at Taco Bell overheard by me:
Male (maybe 30 or so): So your disability covers that? Mine does ,too. Are you also on Section 8 housing like me?
Female:(Seemed to be casual friend of his ). Yes.
Male: Makes it harder to move to a new place. That paperwork.
((Neither looked disabled from the outside, both walked better than I do most of the time. Maybe hidden PTSD or something that doesn’t show. Maybe....”
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This type of thing always got me mad before I retired at age 71 and my wife had to say “ignore them”. But I had to work and I continue have to pay all my own high rent.
[[((Neither looked disabled from the outside, both walked better than I do most of the time. Maybe hidden PTSD or something that doesn’t show. Maybe....”]]
Yeah, we have to be careful- some disabling conditions can’t be seen- and folks look perfectly able bodied- but i n reality they aren’t- some diseases like MS, or bad Chronic fatigue, show no outward signs, and people can do activity short term, like rake a lawn, mow, shovel a drive way- but then they suffer for it out of view where nooen knows they are suffering-
I know people with Chronic Fatigue, and they explain it to me like having a battery that is only 1/4 charged in the morning- they get up- can do some light activity, but by noon, they are so weak they have to lie down to recharge again to 1/4 charge or so, just to make it through the rest of the day, because if they don’t=- and they keep trying to do activities, they end up in bed for a couple of days- weak, shaky, etc- they just don’t have the energy stores that normal people do i guess- They describe it as having the flu non stop- some days it’s better, other days it’s awful- but they always get wiped out doing normal stuff- just like someone with the flu gets wiped out- weak and shaky- People with conditions like this learn to pace themselves, and we only see them when they are at their best- which again- is only a 1/4 of what normal people are at their best-
of course there are degrees of Chronic fatigue- I’m talking about the debilitating severe cases- These folks can do short term stuff like mowing a small lawn- raking- or whatever- but can’t do it in a sustained effort-
I call conditions like that the invisible disabilities- because people look at them- see them working some light activity, and think there is nothing wrong with them-
Sadly These are the folks that can’t work long enough hours to sustain themselves financially because of the need to recharge during the day (some folks have to do this a couple times a day- if they don’t, and skip the recharging, after a couple of days, they are down for the count for a few day)- but they are the first ones to get kicked off disability so that dead beats who are simply out of work can get on disability thanks to obama and ilk-
They are perfectly capable of working- but like you say- they complain of ‘being tired, sore’ and somehow get disability- while people with truly disabling conditions like MS or Chronic fatigue, Parkinson’s, or Fibormyalgia or whatever - can’t get it-
Many of these folks end up getting kicked off- can’t work enough to sustain themselves, and end up homeless and sick- while deadbeats get welfare and sit around smoking pot all day or drinking- that’s what makes me mad-
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