Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 5/3/18

House Republicans are selling the farm bill's proposal to significantly expand state job training as a way to get millions of people off the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which serves about 42 million Americans each year. But a new Congressional Budget Office analysis of the farm bill (HR. 2) released Wednesday night indicates that effort may take much more time than lawmakers hope, Pro Ag's Catherine Boudreau reported. The CBO predicts it will be more than a decade before states can offer all eligible food-stamp recipients a spot in the education and training programs that House Agriculture Chairman Mike Conaway has proposed. That timespan is much longer than the bill's goal, which calls for making those services mandatory by 2021 for certain populations.

"CBO estimates that by the end of 2028, about 80 percent of the beneficiaries who are subject to the work requirement would be offered such services through a state program," the agency reported in its most detailed analysis yet of the farm bill.

CBO assumes that SNAP recipients would not lose benefits if the states failed to offer eligible people a spot in a training program. The House bill does not specify whether states would have to offer training slots within a certain number of miles from where people live to accommodate low-income individuals who may not have their own transportation.

Impact of stricter work requirements: Under the House proposal, stricter work requirements would be imposed on about 5 million to 7 million able-bodied adults receiving SNAP benefits. The group, referred to in government circles as ABAWDs, would have to work or participate in a training program for 20 hours each week, which would increase to 25 hours by 2026. The CBO estimates the proposal would reduce the SNAP caseload by about 1.2 million people in an average month - about 62 percent of which would be adults between the ages of 18 and 59 who live in households with children. The rest would be adults in that same age group who don't have children. About two-thirds of SNAP recipients are exempted from work requirements because they have children under the age of 6, are elderly or disabled.

Window into obscure nutrition provisions: The bill, for example, would allow SNAP households to deduct 22 percent of their income, an increase from 20 percent under current law, when determining eligibility for the program. CBO estimates this provision alone would increase spending on benefits by $4.6 billion over a decade.