![]() State lobbying disclosures show the OSP paid $14,250 to a consultant who lobbied for the bill, which was sent last week to Republican Gov. The new rule would factor the value of liquid assets, including personal property like cars, into the income limits for receiving food assistance or Medicaid - a policy known as an asset test. ![]() Iowa’s Republican supermajority passed a bill in April taking a different approach. Steve Christiansen called up an OSP representative to explain it to lawmakers. In a Utah House hearing in 2021 on a nearly identical proposal, Republican Rep. Kevin Andrus presented FGA senior research fellow Scott Centurino to provide “national context.” When a health department official testified that the proposal could shrink federal funding for the state’s SNAP program, Andrus countered, “This legislation helps individuals to get on their feet and working.” In a committee hearing, Republican state Rep. Last March, a GOP supermajority in Idaho enacted new limits on the state’s ability to waive SNAP work rules for recipients in high unemployment areas. In line with that modular approach, work requirements aren’t the only policy tool the group endorses to prod recipients of public support into the workforce. In its annual report, the foundation called the narrow veto override a “dramatic win” fueled by a campaign that “used FGA’s research and messaging to educate every member on the issue.” State legislative records show that the OSP last year hired local lobbyist Steve Greene, who testified in committee hearings in support of stricter criteria for SNAP benefits. The FGA, like many policy nonprofit groups, maintains a lobbying organization, called the Opportunity Solutions Project. Laura Kelly’s veto of a measure requiring most recipients ages 50-59 to work at least 30 hours per week or attend mandatory job training. In late April, Kansas lawmakers tightened SNAP work rules, voting largely along party lines to override Democratic Gov. The goal, he said, is to “help make them self-sufficient so that they can experience the American dream.” A state-by-state strategy “There’s no better time for individuals to move from welfare dependency into the workforce,” Bragdon said before the debt limit deal was reached, “with almost 10 million open jobs, with many starting jobs beginning at $12, $14 an hour.” But the think tank and its lobbying arm have been a driving force on those issues - often serving as the sole providers of research presented in state legislatures to support the idea that tighter access to safety net programs spurs more people to work. ![]() That tally was up 3.2% from a year earlier but reflects the month before enhanced pandemic-era benefits expired for millions.īragdon, a former state representative from Maine who has served as the foundation’s CEO and president since launching it, estimates only about 20% of the FGA’s policy work addresses welfare and unemployment. ![]() More than 42.5 million people were enrolled in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as of February, the latest data available, receiving an estimated $6 per day for help buying groceries. One aid organization feared drawing attention to its efforts, worried about triggering an FGA lobbying blitz to curb food stamp payments in its home state. In recent interviews, half a dozen hunger relief groups across the country named the FGA as their top adversary in an escalating policy fight over safety net benefits, citing the group more frequently than any other. That is partly because of the state-level strategy with which the FGA has been quietly racking up wins, despite lacking the clout or funding of major conservative K Street institutions that also support shrinking the federal safety net. While the White House and Republicans now turn to selling their pact to lawmakers in both parties, low-income people in many states already face narrowing access to key benefits programs regardless of how the high-wire debt limit fight unfolds in Congress. ![]()
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