Jordan praises successful Maine reforms in SNAP fraud hearing

Congressman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) today praised successful reforms implemented by the state of Maine to help unemployed able-bodied adults to get jobs and successfully rise out of poverty. These reforms served as a model for Rep. Jordan's bill H.R. 5360, the Welfare Reform and Upward Mobility Act of 2016, a bill to reform the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The bill is sponsored in the Senate by Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah).

Today's hearing, entitled "SNAP: Examining Efforts to Combat Fraud and Improve Program Integrity," focused on the program's $2.6 billion in improper payments, which prompted the Office of Management and Budget to designate it as a high-error program. Kevin Concannon, an undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Agriculture; Mary Mayhew, commissioner at Maine's Department of Health and Human Services; Mike Carroll, secretary of Florida's Department of Children and Family Services; Kay Brown, a director at the U.S. Government Accountability Office; and Stacy Dean, vice president for food assistance policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, served as witnesses.

During the hearing, Rep. Jordan explained the positives of Maine's reforms, which have been incorporated into his legislation:

"Win-win-win. Either [individuals] can do the job training, which is going to help them long-term, and stay on food stamps. Or they can do what most people did in Maine and say, ‘You know what, I don't want to do that. I'm just going to get a real job.' And if they decide to opt out and can't get a job they can always come back and go with one of those three options. So tell me what is negative about that? That seems to be helping that individual who was in the system get to a better position in life, and just as importantly help treat taxpayers with the respect they deserve so someone's not living off their tax dollars who's able-bodied."

VIDEO of Rep. Jordan's questioning on SNAP reform: https://youtu.be/WUwIH_RPYBg

Sen. Lee recently co-authored an op-ed with Reps. Jordan and Mark Meadows (R-North Carolina) about H.R. 5360 that appeared online at NationalReview.com. To read the op-ed, click here: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/435852/welfare-reform-upward-mobility-act-bill-marriage-work-rewarded

To read H.R. 5360, click here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/5360

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