Political Quotes

“It was included in the Senate bill, which passed 87 to 12 here, in the reconciliation bill, and in the welfare bill that was vetoed by the President. In fact, the block grant provision that is in this bill actually has a lot higher hurdles for States to jump over to get a block grant, because in the bill that originally came through here, there was a requirement in the original Senate bill that 85 percent of the money be spent on food. In this bill, 94 percent of the money has to be spent on food stamp aid. So States have a higher requirement. In this bill, you can get a block grant only if you have EBT, electronic benefits transfer, a computerized way of providing food stamps. In the other bill, there was no such electronic benefits transfer. In this bill, you have to meet one of these criteria to get in. An error rate of under 6 percent. The national error rate is between 9 and 10 percent. So you have to have a pretty good error rate to be able to qualify for a block grant. There are only a few States who qualify-- Massachusetts, Alabama, Kentucky, Arkansas, Louisiana, South Dakota, and the Virgin Islands. Maryland, Texas, and South Carolina qualify for electronic benefits transfer. If you have an error rate above 6 percent, you have to use State dollars to, in fact, pay down the error rate to make up the difference--obviously, an expense of the States.”