Giving Compass' Take:

• The Republican proposal for the farm bill would expand work requirements for food stamps and job training programs to be run by the states. 

• How can these requirements best accommodate disadvantaged populations with little access to work? What are the costs to the states that will be forced to provide training programs? 

• Do work requirements pull people out of poverty? 

There’s a Republican-authored proposal in the next farm bill that would require millions more people to work or volunteer in order to receive federal food assistance.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program accounts for most of the spending in the bill, which is up for renewal this year, and provides monthly stipends for more than 40 million low-income Americans to buy food (though in many cases the funds may only cover a couple weeks).

Currently, the only group of people required to work in order to qualify for SNAP is adults from 18 to 49 years old who are not disabled and have no dependents. Republicans have proposed extending the age limit to 59, as well as including parents whose kids are older than six.

If that becomes law, the House Agriculture Committee predicts the number of people who would have to work, volunteer or join training programs for 20 hours a week could double from about 3.5 million people to as many as 7 million.

But it’s not just new requirements for recipients: The House proposal also demands that states expand their training programs to people who can’t find a job.

Read the full article about work requirements for food stamps by Grant Gerlock at Harvest Public Media.