By JIM RUTLEDGE

D.C. Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Beginning in September, the USDA is scheduled to begin enforcing new rules to end nutrition benefits for more than 3.1 million people, including 535,000 children.

The proposed rules for the popular Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) are aimed at ending automatic eligibility for those who are already receiving federal or state food assistance and who hold personal savings and other assets.

Currently, 43 states allow residents to automatically become eligible for food assistance through SNAP if they also receive benefits from another federal program known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, the USDA stated.

In a conference call with reporters July 23, USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue and Acting Deputy Under Secretary Brandon Lipps outlined the changes to SNAP, with Perdue saying the new rules close a loophole that has allowed states to make participants receiving TANF benefits automatically eligible to receive SNAP.

“For too long, this loophole has been used to effectively bypass important eligibility guidelines,” he said. “Too often, states have misused this flexibility without restraint. The American people expect their government to be fair, efficient and to have integrity.”

Perdue said the changes would save taxpayers $2.5 billion annually by removing people from SNAP.

Since the announcement, the USDA has begun seeking public comment on the proposed rules before the changes take effect at the end of September, when the government will publish the final regulations in the Federal Register.

As of April, the USDA said 36 million Americans, or about 12 percent of the U.S. population, received SNAP at an average monthly benefit of $121 per person, some benefits as low as $90 per month. In most cases, eligibility is capped at $32,640 in annual income for a family of four.

According to Lipps, the new regulations would only allow automatic enrollment of people who receive welfare benefits worth at least $50 a month on an ongoing basis for at least six months. Other than cash, he said the only welfare benefits that would qualify are subsidized employment, work support such as transportation, and child care.

“Unfortunately,” he said, “automatic eligibility has expanded to allow even millionaires and others who simply receive a TANF-funded brochure to become eligible for SNAP when they clearly don’t need it.”

The Trump administration has argued in the past that many Americans now using SNAP do not need it given the strong economy and low unemployment, and should be removed as a way to save taxpayers billions of dollars.

In a letter last Friday to Perdue, Ohio Democrat Rep. Marcia L. Fudge, chair of the U.S. House Agriculture Subcommittee on Nutrition, Oversight, and Department Operations, expressed “strong opposition” to the rule, explaining that in addition to 3 million recipients being dropped from SNAP, grocers are projected to lose approximately $3 billion in sales because of the cuts.

Fudge wrote: “USDA acknowledged in its own analysis that the rule would exacerbate hunger and financial hardships to millions. By your own admission, the proposed rule may also negatively impact food security and reduce saving rates among those individuals who do not meet the income and resource eligibility requirements for SNAP.

“Mr. Secretary, no one in America wants to be on SNAP. To suggest otherwise is offensive and out of touch.”

 Fudge had said in an earlier statement, “The administration’s ill-conceived proposal will kick millions of people off SNAP – seniors, children, working families, and the disabled. It is yet another attack on hungry Americans that ignores the clearly stated will of Congress.

“The ugly truth,” she added, “what no one in this administration wants to admit, is this: The economy isn’t working for our most vulnerable. They still need a hand up, not a heartless, mean-spirited policy.”

Elaine Waxman, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., said in testimony last month to the House Ag subcommittee, “We particularly worry about food-insecure households with kids and adolescents. Food-insecure children have higher rates of fair and poor health, higher rates of hospitalization, increased risk of asthma, and delays in cognitive developments.”

In a statement to reporters, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, said the USDA’s action “is yet another attempt by this administration to circumvent Congress and make harmful changes to nutrition assistance that have been repeatedly rejected on a bipartisan basis.”

For those interested in reviewing the proposed rule changes and submitting public comment, the USDA is encouraging interested parties to visit www.regulations.gov and search with Docket No. FNS-2018-0037-0001.