Eric Cantor's goal is to have legislation in hand for a House vote by September. Cantor takes fresh cut at food stamps

House Republicans are proposing to double their food stamp savings to nearly $40 billion by rolling back waivers for able-bodied adults and targeting funds to states that are willing to impose greater work requirements on the parents of young children.

The prime mover is Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) who helped jettison the nutrition title from the House farm bill last month and is now trying to write his own version before the House goes to conference with the Senate.


Cantor has used a select working group of conservatives to help shape the package but shows signs now of reaching out to party moderates as well. And his goal is to have legislation in hand which the House can vote on in early September when it returns from the August recess.

The prime target appears to be able-bodied beneficiaries under 50 years old and without dependents — a population that has grown significantly since 2008 because of the bad economy and increased state waivers of a 20-hour-a-week work requirement.

By rolling back these waivers, large savings are possible, essentially by forcing millions off the rolls if they don’t find work after three months. Unless approached with some care, the impact could be severe in areas of chronically high-unemployment, such as the Rio Grande Valley, poor urban areas and Indian reservations, for example. And the final details of the bill have not been made public.

A second area of more modest but still controversial savings would come from using federal funds to pressure states to take a more aggressive welfare reform-like approach imposing work requirements on able-bodied parents with young children.

Currently Washington provides a 50 percent match for states that spend their own funds for employment and training programs for food stamp recipients. As proposed now, the bill would only provide this aid if the state is willing to operate welfare reform-like work activities for mothers with children over 1- years-old.

This is a significant expansion of the current food stamps work rules, which exempt mothers with children under 6.

The current federal match for such employment and training aid is expected to run near $230 million in 2014. New York and California would be most impacted by the provision since they are much more invested in such programs and receive the lion’s share of the federal match.

As reported by the House Agriculture Committee in June, the nutrition title of the farm bill already claimed about $20.5 billion in 10-year food stamp savings. The new target of about $40 billion became public Wednesday evening and was confirmed by Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), when pressed by reporters at an appearance Thursday.

“The drafting process is ongoing. It’s being coordinated by the majority leader’s staff.” Lucas said. And Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson, the panel’s ranking Democrat, said Lucas was being dragged down a path that will ultimately make it harder to enact farm legislation.

“You will have to ask them what the hell they think they are up to but this is not going to help,” Peterson said. “I don’t see how we get a farm bill at the end of the day.

“I don’t what they are trying to do here other than placate the Wall Street Journal and the Club for Growth and Heritage,” he added. “I’ll guarantee you this is going to make no difference to the United States Senate. They are not going to be anywhere near close to it.”

Peterson said his great fear is that the Cantor effort will only raise the stakes on the food stamp cuts to the point where any compromise with be unacceptable to conservatives and make it harder for Democrats to step back in and help pass the final report from the House-Senate conference.

“They have alienated so many Democrats in this process,” Peterson said. “I’m not sure they are going to want to help.”

Lucas seemed mindful of the challenges too in his appearance before an agribusiness audience Thursday.

“Bear in mind in the present work product, the Senate reforms save about $4 billion in their draft,” he said. “The House saves 20.5. Don’t be surprised from the CBO scores of this next product if it doesn’t save $40 billion.”

“This may be one of those issues where the conference committee can work out what each policy really does and what the dollar effect on the budget is but where you have to have a little more guidance from on high,” he said. “That’s not passing the buck — that’s just saying it’s a tough bridge to cross to achieve consensus.”