State Welfare and Food Stamp Requirement Changes Comparison

rockin'robin

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Residents in nearly two dozen states may soon have to follow new guidelines to garner public assistance such as food stamps and welfare, USA Today reports. Recently passed and pending legislation in multiple states requires recipients to take drug tests, show photo identification, perform community service or prohibits some convicted felons from gaining welfare approval.

The American Civil Liberties Union is embroiled in a battle with Florida to end the state's new drug testing law.

Outlined below is how different states are dealing with similar issues:

Photo Identification in 10 States

Ten states are considering legislation to require applicant present photo identification in order to receive electronic benefit cards or food stamps. Reducing fraud is the primary reason such legislation is gaining support, according to the Bangor Daily News.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly referred to as food stamps, is a federal program that requires each state be responsible for distribution costs. A majority of Democrats who testified at a Maine photo identification bill hearing called the pending bill an "assault on the poor," the Bangor Daily News reports.

Felon Restrictions in Tennessee and Ohio

Both Tennessee and Ohio are discussing bills to completely eliminate or restrict public aid to individuals convicted of drug-related felonies, according to USA Today. Eleven states currently have similar laws restricting government assistance from specific types of felons.

News America Media (NAM) reports Missouri, Delaware and West Virginia are considering legislation to remove the bans. Food stamp restrictions opponents consider the ban disproportionately impacts people of color because minorities are more likely to be convicted of drug crimes than whites, according to NAM.

Community Service in New Jersey, Mississippi and North Carolina

New Jersey, Mississippi and North Carolina are reviewing legislation which would require social services program recipient perform community service hours to receive taxpayer funded benefits. Mississippi bill sponsor Senator Nancy Collins told WAPT News that community service work would help the unemployed on public assistance build their resumes.

States requiring or considering community services hours allow exceptions for those physically unable to complete volunteer hours.

Drug Testing in Florida

A recently passed Florida law mandates all welfare and food stamp recipients be tested for illegal drug usage. A small fee charge per test is refunded if the recipient passes the test, the Herald Tribune reports. Missouri and Arizona currently require drug testing of public aid recipients if caseworkers "reasonably" suspect the use of illegal drugs, USA Today reports. Colorado lawmakers are currently debating a bill to require welfare recipients to pass a drug test before receiving any type of government assistance.

ACLU attorney Jason Williamson stated during a USA Today interview that drug testing laws of public assistance recipients unfairly "stigmatizes" them. The Washington Post reports more than two dozen states are considering mandatory drug testing for welfare recipients. Some states are also considering including nicotine testing to drug screenings.

State Welfare and Food Stamp Requirement Changes Comparison - Yahoo! News
 
I agree with most of the changes except banning welfare to convicted felons. Assuming they are truly needy and have served their time (paid their debt) I think they are just as worthy as anyone else.
 
I agree with most of the changes except banning welfare to convicted felons. Assuming they are truly needy and have served their time (paid their debt) I think they are just as worthy as anyone else.

Yes, I agree. It's like they are getting punished the second time around only that they are free citizens once again.
 
Wirelessly posted (Blackberry Bold )

I don't have any issues with them demanding photo ID or drug testing.

Assistance is meant for those who are trying to get back on their feet and aren't able to afford proper nutrition. It's a privelige not a 'right' and its certainly not meant to buy basic food items for those who use the money they DO have on illegal drugs, cigerettes, alchohol etc (often costing hundreds of dollars a month - money that they should be using for food).

I'd also like to add that most people who are legally taking addictive or naracotic meds (pain meds etc) are required to agree in writing that they may be randomly tested for drugs (what they're suppose to be taking as well as any additional drugs). This is to make sure the meds are being taken at the correct dose (versus double-dosing or selling it instead etc).

Sorry, I have no sympathy for the people who've "spent all the money on booze & crack, & now need food stamps because there's no money left"
 
Wirelessly posted (Blackberry Bold )

I don't have any issues with them demanding photo ID or drug testing.

Assistance is meant for those who are trying to get back on their feet and aren't able to afford proper nutrition. It's a privelige not a 'right' and its certainly not meant to buy basic food items for those who use the money they DO have on illegal drugs, cigerettes, alchohol etc (often costing hundreds of dollars a month - money that they should be using for food).

I'd also like to add that most people who are legally taking addictive or naracotic meds (pain meds etc) are required to agree in writing that they may be randomly tested for drugs (what they're suppose to be taking as well as any additional drugs). This is to make sure the meds are being taken at the correct dose (versus double-dosing or selling it instead etc).

Sorry, I have no sympathy for the people who've "spent all the money on booze & crack, & now need food stamps because there's no money left"

past drug issues are in the past and can be forgiven, but current drug issues that are affecting your ability to buy food should matter.
If you can afford crack, weed, acid...ect you can afford food.
 
Wirelessly posted (Blackberry Bold )

JabberJay said:
Wirelessly posted (Blackberry Bold )

I don't have any issues with them demanding photo ID or drug testing.

Assistance is meant for those who are trying to get back on their feet and aren't able to afford proper nutrition. It's a privelige not a 'right' and its certainly not meant to buy basic food items for those who use the money they DO have on illegal drugs, cigerettes, alchohol etc (often costing hundreds of dollars a month - money that they should be using for food).

I'd also like to add that most people who are legally taking addictive or naracotic meds (pain meds etc) are required to agree in writing that they may be randomly tested for drugs (what they're suppose to be taking as well as any additional drugs). This is to make sure the meds are being taken at the correct dose (versus double-dosing or selling it instead etc).

Sorry, I have no sympathy for the people who've "spent all the money on booze & crack, & now need food stamps because there's no money left"

past drug issues are in the past and can be forgiven, but current drug issues that are affecting your ability to buy food should matter.
If you can afford crack, weed, acid...ect you can afford food.

Exactly.

Provided the person's clean, sober and willing to prove it then they should be eligable.

Anyone getting upset about someone having to prove one's identity with photo I'd etc just confuses me.
If I was on a program like that, I'd certainly want something in place preventing just anyone from walking off with my month's vouchers etc. (And Photo ID does that)
 
Wirelessly posted (Blackberry Bold )

Anyone getting upset about someone having to prove one's identity with photo I'd etc just confuses me.
If I was on a program like that, I'd certainly want something in place preventing just anyone from walking off with my month's vouchers etc. (And Photo ID does that)

Same here. I also don't understand why people object to photo ID for voting.
 
Key words...."Holder defends"

From link that I posted.

The attorney general stressed there is no evidence that voter fraud is a problem that can be alleviated by photo ID laws.

“There really is no statistical indication that in person vote fraud has to be cured by the introduction of voter photo ID,” Holder said.

Voter ID requirement is EPIC FAIL and waste of time.

Just other republican's nonsense.
 
Other one...

Policy Brief on Voter Identification | Brennan Center for Justice

ID requirements are not justified by any serious or widespread problem. Proponents often cite fraud or the potential for fraud to justify new ID requirements. There is no question that election misconduct exists, including improper purges of eligible voters, distributing false information about when and where to vote, stuffing of ballot boxes, and tampering with registration forms. But there is no evidence that the type of fraud addressed by stricter voter ID - individual voters who misrepresent their identities at the polls - is anything but an anomaly. In Ohio, a statewide survey found four instances of ineligible persons voting or attempting to vote in 2002 and 20042C out of 9,078,728 votes cast - a rate of 0.00004%. Despite the invocation of fraud as support for the new Georgia law, Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox has stated that she could not recall one documented case of voter fraud relating to the impersonation of a registered voter at the polls during her ten-year tenure as an election official. Nationwide, since October 2002, 86 individuals have been convicted of federal crimes relating to election fraud (including several offenses not remedied by ID requirements), while 196,139,871 ballots have been cast in federal general elections. Statistically, Americans are more likely to be killed by a bolt of lightning.
 
Drug test for welfare applicants are stupid as well.
 
So Holder and The Brennan Center say Voter ID is unnecessary. :cool2:

Yup because it has no benefits and won't prevent any vote fraud.

GOP has no real party platform but filled with all nonsense to praise their right wing.
 
Yup because it has no benefits and won't prevent any vote fraud.

GOP has no real party platform but filled with all nonsense to praise their right wing.

I don't know what the GOP party platform has to do with anything. I am not a member of the GOP, and photo ID is a bipartisan issue.

When it comes to discussing photo ID you seem to only have read one side of the issue, and you've limited yourself to sources that have carefully omitted some key facts, feeding you only what they want you to know.

It's not strictly a Republican issue, for one thing. 70% of Americans support it.

In states where photo ID laws have passed, there has been bipartisan support. And some states that have photo ID laws did them in direct response to discoveries of existing voter fraud in the number of thousands. In South Carolina:
a state review of voter registration rolls that found 85,000 registered voters in South Carolina lacked a photo ID issued by the state DMV, with 37,000 of those registered actually being deceased.

However, South Carolina — one of seven states in the past year and 15 overall to adopt a photo ID law intended to prevent voter fraud — is not the only state whose new law has run afoul of the Obama Justice Department.

The state of Texas has recently launched a similar suit against the DOJ over its own photo ID law, one passed by overwhelming bi-partisan support in May 2011 but which has been twice delayed by the DOJ from taking effect.

It should be noted that while the DOJ may find voter photo ID laws unconstitutional, that view hasn’t been shared by the Supreme Court. In 2008, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Indiana’s photo ID requirement when it ruled that states can require voters to produce photo identification without violating their constitutional rights.

In arguing that voter fraud in close elections would dilute the valid votes of legitimate voters, sway close elections, and negatively impact voter confidence, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority that Indiana’s voter ID law is “amply justified by the valid interest in protecting the integrity and reliability of the electoral process.”

And did anybody tell you that:
every state that has passed a voter ID law has also ensured that individuals who do not have a photo ID can easily obtain one for free if they cannot afford one. In fact, South Carolina’s ID law goes as far as to state that if a voter claims to have had a “reasonable impediment” to getting a photo ID, they can vote anyway.

As for voter fraud, Holden is on record as one who refused to protect voting rights and prosecute intimidation at the polls, so his opinion is highly suspect.

Also not compatible with facts
:

For most of Florida's history as part of the United States it has prohibited voting by felons. Every time a felon votes illegally, it constitutes a case of voter fraud--albeit not the phony representation of "case" settled on by the fact checkers.

Most often nothing can be done to prosecute a case of voter fraud against a felon who votes illegally even though it happens with some regularity. The Miami Herald, for example, reported the following in the wake of its investigations of the 2000 presidential election:

At least 445 Florida felons voted illegally on Nov. 7, casting another cloud over a disputed presidential election already mired in legal challenges, a Herald investigation has found.

The tainted votes -- found in a review of nearly half a million votes cast in 12 Florida counties -- provide evidence that the presidential race was influenced by thousands of ineligible voters. Nearly six million voters in Florida's 67 counties cast ballots.

Got that? The Herald found evidence that thousands of ineligible votes were cast in just one election.

There is zero evidence that photo ID would harm anybody, so there's no reason no to do it.
 
I don't know what the GOP party platform has to do with anything. I am not a member of the GOP, and photo ID is a bipartisan issue.

When it comes to discussing photo ID you seem to only have read one side of the issue, and you've limited yourself to sources that have carefully omitted some key facts, feeding you only what they want you to know.

It's not strictly a Republican issue, for one thing. 70% of Americans support it.

In states where photo ID laws have passed, there has been bipartisan support. And some states that have photo ID laws did them in direct response to discoveries of existing voter fraud in the number of thousands. In South Carolina:


And did anybody tell you that:


As for voter fraud, Holden is on record as one who refused to protect voting rights and prosecute intimidation at the polls, so his opinion is highly suspect.

Also not compatible with facts
:



There is zero evidence that photo ID would harm anybody, so there's no reason no to do it.

Photo ID requirement hits low class/poor people so hard in our state and there are no free ID with photo. Most of them use ID or document without photo like birth certificate, SSN, etc. Now, we will not see much poor people will ability to vote without photo ID. We are no South Carolina.
 
Photo ID requirement hits low class/poor people so hard in our state and there are no free ID with photo. Most of them use ID or document without photo like birth certificate, SSN, etc. Now, we will not see much poor people will ability to vote without photo ID. We are no South Carolina.

Good news!

A registered voter without such an ID could apply to the Alabama Secretary of State's office for a free Alabama photo voter ID card that also would be accepted at the polls.

Alabama voters for years have been required to show identification at the polls, but many forms of non-photo IDs are allowed, such as a current utility bill, a Social Security card or a copy of a birth certificate.

Alabama Senate completes legislative approval of Alabama photo ID requirement for voters | al.com
 
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