Food Stamp Mischief

Friday, April 12, 2002; Page A30

PRESIDENT BUSH had the right idea when he proposed earlier this year to restore legal immigrants' eligibility for food stamps, a benefit that was stripped away in one of the most ungenerous excesses of the 1996 welfare reform bill. But if he was serious about this sensible piece of his budget plan, it's time for him to exert some pressure on its behalf, because there seems to be mischief afoot. This week House Republican members of the conference committee on the farm bill, which includes the food stamp program, put forward a much more restrictive proposal, one that would so severely limit immigrants' eligibility that it would have allowed lawmakers to divert to other programs most of the $2 billion earmarked for the extension over the next decade. Senate conferees rejected the proposal, and now committee leaders will have to decide what to do next. At the very least they should endorse Mr. Bush's original plan, and he should weigh in to help Republican members make up their minds to go along.

Food stamps, a critical part of the safety net for the poor, are the purest of the federal aid programs: All a household needs to qualify is a low income. In 1996 Congress stripped legal immigrants of eligibility for food stamps and a variety of other benefits; President Bush proposed to restore that eligibility for legal immigrants who have been in the United States for at least five years. Administration officials estimated that the change would add as many as 363,000 recipients to the food stamp rolls. It's a basic step toward fairness and equity; conferees could improve on it by accepting language passed in the Senate that would make immigrant children immediately eligible and allow adults to shorten the waiting period by showing a four-year history of employment. What they must not do is head in the direction signaled by the House Republicans, which would have carved away at the numbers eligible by piling on one restriction after another. Far too much of the money in this farm bill is already going to maintain self-defeating subsidies for corporate farms: Members should at least protect this modest effort to help keep needy individuals from going hungry.