Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018--Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, I am proud to join with Senator Kennedy and Senator Lee in offering this amendment.

The farm bill has many good and important elements in it that benefit our farmers and ranchers, who are a critical part of our economy in my home State of Texas and all across this country.

A major component of this bill is, of course, the food stamp program. The food stamp program provides important support for people who are in need, but at the same time, we should not be trapping people into dependency.

The amendment that I have joined with Senator Kennedy and Senator Lee in offering strengthens the work requirements for food stamps for able- bodied adults. Right now, more than a third of the country lives in areas with no work requirements. Thirty-three States have some kind of waiver on the work requirements. Twenty-eight States have partial waivers. Five States and the District of Columbia have total waivers on work requirements. That is not right, and it has led to a troubling development. In recent years, a rapidly growing group of food stamp recipients has been able-bodied adults between the ages of 18 to 49, in prime working ages, who are not disabled and have no dependents or children to support. This population has quintupled, rising from 1 million recipients in 2008 to about 5 million recipients in 2015.

As a Senate, this should be a bipartisan proposal. We should come together to include work requirements to get people who are on food stamps back into the workplace, providing for their families.

I urge our colleagues to support this amendment.

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