House Ag releases SNAP report, eyes overhaul

The GOP majority on the House Agriculture Committee released a two-year review of the program that stops short of making specific policy recommendations, but hints at areas where Republicans could focus: strengthening work requirements and perhaps issuing new ones, tightening some eligibility requirements or providing new incentives to encourage food stamp recipients to buy healthier foods. "There's nothing off the table when it comes to looking at solutions around these areas where we think improvements need to be made," the committee chairman, Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, said  The report, based on 16 hearings by the committee, recommends better enforcement of some SNAP work programs in certain states, and finds that 42 states use broad eligibility standards that some Republicans have criticized as too loose. It encourages more incentives to get people to buy healthy food with their food stamp dollars, addressing criticism that recipients use public money for junk foods. The report cites Agriculture Department data showing that 10 percent of foods typically purchased by SNAP households are sweetened beverages.