President Donald Trump's fiscal year 2018 budget proposal called for massive cuts to the social safety net. | Olivier Douliery/Pool/Getty Images Trump administration weighing executive order on welfare

Trump administration officials are mulling an executive order that would instruct federal agencies to review low-income assistance programs, part of a coming effort to make sweeping changes to the country’s welfare system.

The White House began circulating a draft order to federal agencies for comment last week, according to two administration officials, who were granted anonymity to discuss the internal deliberations.


One of the officials said the draft order calls on agencies to review existing regulations and propose new rules that conform to a set of broad welfare principles, including tighter work requirements that encourage recipients to shift back into the labor force.

The order also calls for streamlining or eliminating duplicative services and establishing metrics for holding agencies accountable for program performance. It also encourages greater cooperation with state and local governments.

The initiative comes as President Donald Trump shifts attention to his ambitious tax reform initiative in the wake of his failed effort to repeal Obamacare. Administration backers of the welfare executive order hope he signs it before Thanksgiving, one of the officials said.

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But another official cautioned that the conversations about the order are “very preliminary at this stage,” adding that the final outcome is uncertain. The order has not yet gone through the strict policy-vetting process put in place by White House chief of staff John Kelly.

“We aren’t going to comment on rumors about future potential Executive Orders,” White House spokeswoman Natalie Strom said in an email. “When we have something to release, we’ll let you know.”

The draft order, which has been under discussion by an internal White House-led working group since this past spring, doesn’t target any specific program, according to one of the officials who had reviewed it, but instead calls for a high-level overview of programs across federal agencies.

The agencies in the process of reviewing the order include the Department of Health and Human Services, the Labor Department, the Agriculture Department, the Treasury Department, the Education Department and the Commerce Department.

Administration officials have been talking to members of Congress for months to discuss a broader effort to rethink the government’s welfare programs. The last major welfare reform came in 1996, under President Bill Clinton.

Liberals have long criticized the 1996 bill, asserting that it hurt millions of low-income Americans. Since then, Democrats have fiercely opposed efforts to weaken welfare programs, arguing that Republicans are using the banner of welfare reform to target poor people.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) have introduced wide-ranging legislation that would make changes to welfare programs, including by imposing tighter work requirements on recipients of food stamps, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Jordan and Lee have said they modeled their legislation on the 1996 welfare legislation, which imposed new work requirements and limits on welfare recipients.

Trump mentioned the issue in both his January inaugural address and his February speech to a joint session of Congress. “Millions lifted from welfare to work is not too much to expect,” Trump said in his February remarks.

The president’s fiscal year 2018 budget proposal called for massive cuts to the social safety net, including food stamps, Social Security disability insurance benefits and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.

“If you’re on food stamps and able-bodied, we need you to go to work,” White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told reporters earlier this year.

