Brian Lyman

Montgomery Advertiser

Rarely does a bill provoke someone to pound a committee table. But Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, did so in a Senate committee last Wednesday, emphasizing his opposition to legislation imposing limits on public assistance.

“I’m going to do whatever I can to stop this,” Smitherman told members of the Senate's Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Development Committee. “I am not going to let you do this to these people. I am not going to let people starve.”

The bill in question, sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, creates new restrictions on programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps, and Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF), which provides monthly payments to very poor families with children.

Orr and other supporters framed the bill as a means to ensure benefits go to the needy and that those on the program aren't there forever.

“We want to get people working back in the workforce and not hanging out for public benefits because they can,” Orr said in an interview Friday.

The legislation would cut eligibility for Temporary Aid for Needy Families (TANF) from five years to three. It would also require TANF recipients to sign a paper acknowledging they would stick to the requirements of the program, including those related to work. The bill would also prevent the Alabama Department of Human Resources (DHR) from seeking work waivers for those receiving SNAP, and would also require EBT cards for recipients of public benefits to have photos on them.

The legislation would also end SNAP eligibility for anyone who may not be cooperating with child care enforcement.

The bill would also change asset calculations, and make the Alabama Medicaid Agency implement new practices to verify eligibility for the program.

The committee approved the legislation on a 10-3 vote. The bill goes to the full Senate.

Logan Pike, state government relations manager for the Heartland Institute, an Illinois-based conservative think tank, spoke on behalf of the bill Wednesday. In an interview Monday, Pike said the TANF portion of the bill aimed to prevent recipients from developing "habits that can make it difficult to attain self-sufficiency."

"We’re trying to make sure the money the state is spending is going toward the truly needy," she said. "We want to make sure the state is a good steward of taxpayer dollars."

Opponents like Smitherman said the bill assumed jobs were waiting for recipients. In high-unemployment areas like Wilcox County, where unemployment reached 15.3 percent in December, Smitherman said, that wasn't the case.

"There’s no provisions in there that guarantee employment if you go through those steps," he said Thursday.

Benefits awarded under TANF and SNAP are modest. According to DHR, a family of three qualifying for TANF would receive $215 a month. About 27,073 people in Alabama – in 11,923 households – received TANF benefits in January, according to DHR. Of those, 20,974 – 77 percent – were children.

According to a report from the Congressional Research Service, the number of families receiving cash assistance in Alabama fell nearly 74 percent since 1994 and 2015.

In FY 2014, just over 900,000 Alabamians in 429,000 households received SNAP benefits, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The average benefit per household was $261.81 a month, about $65.45 a week. The average monthly benefit per person was $121.77 a month, or $30.44 a week.

Alabama's population is 4.8 million. Carol Gundlach, a policy analyst with Alabama Arise, said most of those receiving SNAP benefits were working or had worked recently, and the strict limits already existing in the programs meant there was a lot of churn in who received the benefits.

"People just aren't dependent," she said. "That's a myth. People go on and off these programs all the time, particularly TANF."

The Legislative Fiscal Office does not have an estimate on the cost of the bill. Barry Spear, a spokesman for DHR, which administers SNAP and TANF in Alabama, said the department has not taken a position on the legislation, but estimates that it would cost DHR at least $10 million to put in place. Spear said the department would have to buy equipment to implement the new ID requirements in Alabama’s 67 counties, and invest resources in enforcing the child support provisions.

“That would increase our child support rolls,” he said. “We’d probably have to hire people to handle that.”

Entire households, not just individuals, can use public benefit cards, and some at Wednesday's meeting said the photo ID provision could create confusion. Orr rejected that criticism Friday, saying other services require ID and that it was "no an overwhelming burden" to use the card.

Orr also cited concerns about public safety. In June, investigators raided 11 stores in Jefferson County; according to al.com, the stores were defrauding the SNAP program and wiring some of the profits to Yemen. Gundlach said those raids were "proof the system works."

"The federal law enforcement agency, the Department of Human Resources figured out there were bad apples," she said. "They investigated and arrested owners of stores taking food stamps in an illegal manner. That’s what we want to see happen."

Others said reducing eligibility for the program could drive people in need to local or private charities that lack the resources to keep up. Chris Martin of the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama said the new requirements could prevent people who qualify for the benefits from getting them.

“If any barriers are added to the SNAP program, we know families will fall through the cracks,” she said Wednesday.

Kimble Forrister, the executive director of Alabama Arise, said the bill would not translate into savings for the state.

“If you save money on benefits, all you can do is spend the money on other TANF recipients,” he said.

Orr said he could consider changes to allow TANF benefits to continue in areas with chronically high unemployment. But he rejected suggestions from Smitherman that shortening TANF eligibility time would impose a burden on those seeking jobs in places like Wilcox County.

“85 percent are employed,” Orr said. “You make it sound like it’s an impossibility to find a job.”

A 2015 economic study found that extending unemployment benefits may have contributed to higher unemployment rates. The study has drawn criticism.

Orr and Smitherman both said they will meet Tuesday to discuss the bill and potential changes. It is unclear when it may come to the Senate floor.

Updated at 2:40 p.m. on March 18: An earlier version of this story stated the legislation's changes to asset calculations could affect car ownership. Analysts say the calculations would not affect primary vehicles.