Tom Harkin: “I would like to make a few more points on the hunger relief provisions. The centerpiece of this package would allow…”

“I would like to make a few more points on the hunger relief provisions. The centerpiece of this package would allow states to reform their treatment of cars and trucks when determining whether a household meets the food stamp resource eligibility limits. Rural families need to look for and travel to employment, to get groceries, and for a host of other purposes. Rural roads and seasonal driving hazards make a dependable vehicle a real necessity. Particularly in an era of welfare reform, we should not be forcing households to choose between reliable transportation and needed food assistance, as current rules effectively do. States have recognized this, and a great many of them have greatly reformed their treatment of cars in their TANF-funded programs. This is particularly true of the first car that a household has. Under this provision, states would be free to apply a more realistic TANF policy to a household's primary vehicle even if its policy is to exclude that vehicle completely from evaluations of the family's resources. If the household had an additional car or truck and its TANF policy was stricter than food stamp rules for second vehicles, that additional car or truck should then be evaluated under the usual food stamp procedures. This change in the law gives a state the broadest flexibility to adopt a policy that effects vehicles from any assistance program it operates under the TANF statute.”