SNAP, child labor bills encounter obstacles in Kentucky state Senate

A pair of controversial bills sponsored by Republican lawmakers in Kentucky has just gone down to defeat in Senate committees, as the Lexington Herald-Leader reports, including one that would significantly impact SNAP welfare benefits.

At issue in the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Tourism and Labor were House Bill 255 and House Bill 367.

House Bill 225 provided for the relaxation of certain child labor laws, bolstering the number of hours in which 16- and 17-year-olds would be permitted to work during the school year.

Another measure, known as House Bill 367, purported to alter food stamp eligibility standards for able-bodied adults in hopes of closing loopholes that critics contend led to waste and abuse.

Income and asset tests would be imposed for those seeking SNAP benefits, and work requirements would be placed on adults lacking dependents and who had no disabilities preventing them from employment.

In the end, both bills failed to secure sufficient votes to advance out of the committee to the full Senate.

It was back in February that both measures won passage in the Kentucky House, as Fox News noted, despite intense objections from Democrats in the chamber.

Republican Rep. Phillip Pratt underscored what he believes are the invaluable life lessons teenagers can learn when they are permitted to hold down a job, saying, “For everyone on the other side of this bill, you're standing in the way of these lessons.”

At the same time, Republican Rep. Wade Williams explained that the food stamp bill would help eliminate what he described as deterrents to work, which he said have continued to play a role in Kentucky's low workforce participation rate.

Williams declared, “The pandemic is behind us, and it's time for a thoughtful solution on how we get more workers back in the workforce. It's not compassionate to simply keep somebody as a servant to the government.”

Democrat Rep. Sarah Stalker stood in opposition to the bill, however, rhetorically asking, “How poor do you have to be in Kentucky to be worthy of foot? That is the question of the day. We're talking about a basic need and a right.”

Rep. Chad Aull, another Democrat, took aim at the SNAP bill, noting, “We're supposed to love the least among us. This is picking on them.”

Despite the intense disagreements among lawmakers from opposite sides of the aisle, the measures went on to secure House passage, only to run into the aforementioned obstacles in Senate committee debate.

Even so, Sen. Max Wise, a Republican from Campbellsville, suggests that there may yet be hope that the bills could be revived and passed in the upper chamber, but whether the political will exists to ensure that happens, only time will tell.