A state Senate committee approved a bill Wednesday to cut new holes in Alabama’s safety net.
Issue: Safety Net
Senate panel OKs costly new SNAP, Medicaid limits that would punish struggling Alabamians
There’s an old saying: If you like laws or sausage, you should never watch either one being made. Wednesday afternoon was a perfect example of how stomach-turning it can be to see how laws are often made in Alabama.
The Senate Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Development Committee approved a bill Wednesday to cut new holes in Alabama’s safety net. This plan would erect harmful, expensive new barriers to food assistance under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), health coverage under Medicaid, and cash aid under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. And it would increase hunger and hardship for tens of thousands of struggling Alabamians in the process.
The bill – SB 294, sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur – is a version of the “HOPE Act” promulgated by the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), a nationwide conservative organization based in Florida. The bill now awaits consideration in the full Senate.
At a public hearing Wednesday, four Alabamians spoke against SB 294:
- Carol Gundlach, policy analyst at Alabama Arise.
- Jim Jones, director of Alabama Childhood Food Solutions.
- Laura Lester, executive director of the Alabama Food Bank Association.
- Ashley Lyerly, director of advocacy with the American Lung Association in Birmingham.
All of us agreed that this bill would make people in Alabama poorer, hungrier and sicker. The only speaker in support was an FGA staffer from Arkansas who repeatedly misstated many of the bill’s provisions. Compounding the problem, many committee members showed unfamiliarity with how safety net programs work in Alabama. The result was a frustrating discussion that consistently mixed up SNAP, TANF, Medicaid and even SSI eligibility requirements. In the end, few people left the room with a clear understanding of the bill.
How SB 294 would hurt struggling Alabamians
But it’s important to recognize the wide-ranging harm this plan would cause. SB 294 would take many steps to worsen life for Alabamians in poverty:
- Reinstitute a SNAP asset test that could deny food assistance to some families with more than one automobile or to seniors with small savings accounts for medical or funeral costs.
- Eliminate a slightly higher gross income limit for seniors, which helps make up for their higher medical costs.
- Prohibit Gov. Kay Ivey from requesting a federal waiver of work requirements imposed on a small group of SNAP recipients, unless the unemployment rate is greater than 10%.
- Require every non-disabled SNAP participant over age 16 to participate in an expensive workfare program, including parents with children over 6. This requirement would make it impossible for Alabama to continue operating an excellent job-training program that serves 36 counties.
- Deny SNAP food assistance to people who fail to “comply” with child support services. But the word “comply” is not defined in SB 294. So we don’t know for sure what hoops people would need to jump through to get SNAP.
- Reduce the maximum number of months that parents can receive TANF cash assistance to 36 months in a lifetime. This would cut even more adults off TANF, which is already a shadow of what was once the country’s most important anti-poverty program.
- Require SNAP and Medicaid participants to recertify eligibility every six months. This complicated process inevitably would end assistance for otherwise eligible people who simply couldn’t navigate the red tape.
Many of SB 294’s would-be limits lack specificity. But proposed new data verification requirements are spelled out in minute detail. The bill also would allow Alabama to contract with a private company to comply with those requirements, a provision that raised several eyebrows.
The good news: SB 294 is a long way from becoming law
Now that it has won committee approval, SB 294 could appear on the Senate’s calendar at any time. But we expect the Senate to vote on the education budget next week, so SB 294 is unlikely to come up before May 7 at the earliest. And even if the Senate passed the bill, it still would have to clear the House as well. The closer we get to the end of the regular session, the less time SB 294 has to become law.
We’ll be keeping an eye on this harmful bill while we organize Arise supporters to make their opposition known. Watch this space for further updates!
Arise legislative recap: April 19, 2019
“The grocery tax is a tax on a basic necessity of life. It’s a tax on survival. And it’s time for Alabama to bring this tax to an end.”
Arise communications director Chris Sanders discusses a recent bill by Rep. Chris England that would be a major step forward on untaxing groceries. The video also details Arise’s plan for how Alabama could end the state grocery tax and expand Medicaid without cutting a dime from the education budget.
Budget hearings show need for Alabama to expand Medicaid, boost public investments
Alabama needs to expand Medicaid and invest more in education and other human services. Those were key takeaways from this week’s state budget hearings in Montgomery. The hearings highlighted a range of policy challenges and illustrated the connections between many of them.
We heard a lot of talk this week about the need to strengthen Alabama’s “infrastructure.” Many legislators say the state just doesn’t have enough money to make further investments in human infrastructure – the services like health care, child welfare and public safety that serve as a basic measure of what we value. But that’s incorrect.
Alabama’s lack of money for education, health care, child care and other services isn’t a natural force like the weather. It’s the result of decades of policy choices, as our Tax & Budget Handbook shows. And better choices can lead to better outcomes for Alabama.
Medicaid expansion could cut costs for corrections, DHR
Numerous agency leaders identified Alabama’s fraying rural health care system as a major concern. Rural hospital closures hurt communities and make it harder to get care. A lack of mental health care takes a toll on families, schools and workers. And both challenges increase financial strain on the corrections system.
The opioid epidemic is one problem that cuts across multiple areas: corrections, education, human resources, law enforcement, Medicaid, mental health and public health. Many parents fighting addiction lose child custody to the Department of Human Resources (DHR), which struggles to recruit foster parents for an average $16 daily allowance.
While bare-bones health agencies tackle the epidemic’s medical consequences, Alabama’s corrections system has emerged as the largest provider of mental health services, with many of them linked to substance use disorders.
That’s true even as Alabama’s prison overcrowding remains staggeringly high. The state prison system once operated at nearly double its designed capacity. Recent sentencing reforms helped cut that rate to 163 percent, and Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn expects it to sink to 145 percent. But further reductions are unlikely without broader changes, Dunn said.
Rural hospital closures affect prison overcrowding, too. Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, said a private prison in Perry County is vacant despite an appropriation to buy it. The county has no hospital, which would make it hard to use the prison even if the state bought it, Ward said.
Medicaid expansion would cut costs and improve lives across all these areas of concern. It would stem the tide of rural hospital closures. It would expand access to mental health and substance use treatment. And that would save many Alabamians from going to jail or losing child custody. Arise members and other advocates must keep making the case for Medicaid expansion throughout 2019.
Decades of inadequate funding cause unmet needs, staff shortages
Our state’s upside-down tax system requires most Alabamians to pay twice the share of income in state and local taxes that the richest households pay on average. It also means Alabama struggles to raise enough money to fund health care, child welfare and other important services.
Staff shortages were a running theme at this year’s budget hearings. Alabama’s corrections and mental health commissioners both emphasized problems with hiring and keeping qualified employees. DHR cited high turnover in child welfare staff, who are first on the scene when children’s safety is at risk. And the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) needs more state troopers to ensure highway safety.
DHR Commissioner Nancy Buckner asked lawmakers for an additional $21 million for 2020. Buckner said DHR struggles to retain staff, especially in the stressful child welfare division, which has 36 percent turnover. “Anything you can see on TV, we probably have multiple cases,” Buckner said.
The new money would allow for salary increases, technology improvements, and higher payments for foster families, Buckner said. Foster parents are difficult to recruit, she said, and the opioid epidemic has left more children in foster care.
For corrections, Dunn asked for another $42 million to hire and retain 500 prison guards and improve mental health services. (Low unemployment makes it harder to retain officers, Dunn said, because they often can earn more at safer jobs.) A federal judge has ordered Alabama to address its guard shortage and inadequate health services in state prisons.
ALEA Secretary Hal Taylor requested another $8.7 million to provide raises and hire 50 new state troopers. Up to 200 troopers could retire soon, Taylor said, and ALEA must compete with other departments for officers.
K-12 schools seek to hire more teachers, expand mental health support
Alabama schools discussed their needs for 2020 as well. State school Superintendent Eric Mackey requested an additional $295 million from the Education Trust Fund. With that money, schools could hire more teachers in grades 4-6 and invest more in the Alabama Reading Initiative. They also could hire more school nurses and provide a $600 allowance per teacher for classroom supplies.
Mackey asked for an extra $270 per student to teach about 25,000 students for whom English is a second language. And he requested another $22 million for school safety improvements and school-based mental health services.
Mackey echoed other agency heads by raising concerns about future personnel shortages. A recent survey of high school seniors found only 4 percent want to become teachers, down from 12 percent in previous surveys, Mackey said.
Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, asked Mackey to address the state Department of Education’s listing of 76 schools as “failing.” Most of those schools are in low-income areas and serve mostly black students. Mackey said the Alabama Accountability Act requires him to designate the lowest performing 6 percent of schools as “failing,” no matter how well they may educate students. The Accountability Act, enacted mere hours after introduction in 2013, diverts tens of millions of dollars a year from public schools to private school scholarship funds.
ALL Kids, pre-K, SNAP offer models for success
The budget hearings painted a stark picture of Alabama’s challenges, but they brought good news, too. Lawmakers heard numerous examples of how investments in health care and education are paying off.
Alabama’s rate of uninsured children is among the South’s best, and ALL Kids is a big reason why. The program provides health coverage for children whose low- and middle-income households don’t qualify for Medicaid. ALL Kids was the country’s first Children’s Health Insurance Program, and it remains a national performance leader in children’s health coverage.
The Program for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) provides an exemplary community-based long-term care option for residents of Mobile and Baldwin counties. The state’s commitment to pre-kindergarten has created a model for early childhood education. And aggressive workforce training programs in K-12 and two-year colleges are boosting Alabama’s economic potential.
Medicaid Commissioner Stephanie Azar highlighted investments in long-term care reform and primary care reform. The statewide Integrated Care Network (ICN) has already launched its case management system, designed to steer more long-term care patients into home- and community-based services. On the primary care side, Alabama Coordinated Health Networks (ACHNs) will launch in seven regions this fall. That move will bring Medicaid decision-making closer to communities and emphasize preventive and coordinated care.
Buckner thanked DHR’s Food Assistance Division for ensuring Alabamians received benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) during the recent federal government shutdown. Facing a Jan. 20 deadline to distribute February benefits, employees worked nights and weekends to approve 1,700 SNAP applications.
Buckner also praised the Food Assistance Division for earning federal bonuses of $2.4 million for timely processing of applications and low error rates in benefit calculations. Unfortunately for Alabama, which has a highly efficient and accurate SNAP program, Congress ended future bonuses in the 2018 Farm Bill.
It’s time to invest in a brighter future
Successful investments like these aren’t “one and done.” Alabama must resume providing some state money for ALL Kids next year as full federal funding ends. PACE seeks to expand, but its requests have been rejected so far. Only one-third of Alabama’s 4-year-olds are enrolled in pre-K. And gearing up for the 21st century will require even bolder workforce development.
Treading water is not enough. Education, Medicaid and other vital services need more funding so they can do more than the bare minimum. Smart investments in these services will pay off in a stronger, healthier future for all Alabamians.
Policy director Jim Carnes, policy analyst Carol Gundlach and communications director Chris Sanders contributed to this post.
Shutdown deal brings sigh of relief for struggling Alabamians
The White House on Friday announced a short-term agreement to end the 35-day partial shutdown of the federal government. Alabama Arise executive director Robyn Hyden issued the following statement in response:
“The pain from this unnecessary shutdown has grown by the day. Fortunately, this deal will reopen the federal government without causing further damage to struggling people. We thank all the everyday Alabamians who demanded an end to this harmful shutdown.
“Our country can’t afford to end up back in this shameful situation a few weeks from now. And we can’t afford to leave millions of Americans at greater risk for hunger, homelessness and hardship. Lawmakers must reach a long-term funding deal that protects SNAP, WIC and other vital nutrition assistance and rental assistance programs. And they should do it without seeking other policies that would hurt people who struggle to make ends meet.”
How will the government shutdown affect SNAP food assistance in Alabama?
The partial federal government shutdown will enter its second month next week, and the stakes are high for Alabama families. Here are five things you need to know about how the shutdown will affect food assistance in Alabama:
- Most Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants will see their February 2019 benefits issued around Sunday, Jan. 20, 2019.
- These benefits are early, not extra. So if participants get February benefits in January, they will NOT get any more benefits in February.
- Some participants will not get February benefits in January. But they should get their benefits as usual in February, if they turn in all required paperwork.
- Benefits in March may be lower or unavailable if the government shutdown continues then.
- Benefits on EBT cards will be valid for a year after issuance, no matter what the government does.
Bipartisan Farm Bill brings good news for struggling Alabamians
The U.S. House on Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2018, passed a compromise Farm Bill that avoided threatened cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). All members of Alabama’s House delegation joined Alabama’s two U.S. senators in voting for the bill. Alabama Arise executive director Robyn Hyden issued the following statement in response:
“The Farm Bill contains good news for struggling families across Alabama and across the country. It protects and strengthens the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, our nation’s most effective anti-hunger program. SNAP has long had bipartisan support, and we commend House and Senate negotiators for continuing that tradition by working together across party lines to protect food assistance.
“SNAP helps nearly 900,000 Alabamians make ends meet, and we’re pleased that Congress passed a Farm Bill that protects this critical program. We thank Sens. Doug Jones and Richard Shelby and Alabama’s House members for voting to keep food on hundreds of thousands of Alabama tables.
“We also thank the many Alabamians who stood together to help protect food assistance after the House initially voted for harmful SNAP cuts that would have increased hunger. Their calls and letters to our representatives in Washington were critical in ensuring that SNAP will continue to help feed a range of people in households that struggle to make ends meet, including children, parents, seniors, people with disabilities, and working people with low pay and inconsistent hours.”
U.S. Senate vote to protect SNAP is great news for Alabama
Arise Citizens’ Policy Project executive director Kimble Forrister issued the following statement Thursday, June 28, 2018, in response to the U.S. Senate’s 86-11 vote for a Farm Bill that protects and strengthens the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP):
“SNAP helps nearly 900,000 Alabamians make ends meet, and we’re pleased that the Senate voted overwhelmingly today for a Farm Bill that protects this essential tool to reduce hunger and poverty. We especially want to thank Senators Doug Jones and Richard Shelby for supporting the bill and opposing an amendment that would have made harmful changes to SNAP.
“Strengthening SNAP – not cutting it as the House Farm Bill proposes – is the right path forward. We urge Senators Jones and Shelby to work to ensure that the final conference agreement retains the Senate’s bipartisan protections of SNAP. And we urge the members of Alabama’s House delegation to join them in safeguarding food assistance for struggling families who need help.”
House Farm Bill would take food assistance from thousands of Alabamians, hurt rural communities
Arise Citizens’ Policy Project executive director Kimble Forrister issued the following statement Thursday, June 21, 2018, in response to the U.S. House’s passage of a Farm Bill that would cut food assistance for millions of Americans:
“The U.S. House just voted to make life harder for tens of thousands of Alabamians. The House Farm Bill would increase hunger and hardship across Alabama and across the country by undercutting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This program helps nearly 900,000 Alabamians afford groceries and lifts 195,000 of them out of poverty.
“SNAP plays an essential role in supporting Alabama’s economy, improving public health and boosting rural communities. But the House bill would shift funding away from food assistance to a new, unworkable and underfunded employment and training system that would do little to help people actually find jobs. This move would take away or cut food assistance for millions of struggling Americans, including children, seniors, veterans, people with disabilities, low-wage workers, and people who lost their jobs.
“The Senate is pursuing a better approach, with a bipartisan Farm Bill that protects SNAP and makes meaningful investments in job training. We urge Senators Doug Jones and Richard Shelby to support the Senate bill and reject any harmful amendments that would cut SNAP for struggling Americans. We need a Farm Bill that supports our communities, strengthens food assistance and invests in comprehensive job training and education programs to give low-wage workers the opportunity to climb the economic ladder.”
Arise and partner groups urge Jones, Shelby to support Senate Farm Bill without harmful changes
Nearly 1 in 8 Americans, including nearly 900,000 Alabamians, depend on SNAP to help them keep food on the table. And each year, SNAP contributes $1.3 billion to Alabama’s economy, spent in more than 5,000 Alabama stores. Standing in stark contrast to the House Farm Bill, which could terminate or reduce benefits for more than 2 million people, the Senate Farm Bill reauthorizes SNAP, strengthens the program’s operational integrity, and expands existing pilot employment and training programs so that additional states can test promising avenues to work for unemployed and low-wage SNAP participants.
Arise has joined with the Alabama Food Bank Association, the Alabama Rivers Alliance, the Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network and Greater Birmingham Ministries to urge U.S. Sens. Doug Jones and Richard Shelby to vote for the 2018 Senate Farm Bill and oppose any harmful amendments that would weaken access to food assistance, clean water or support from sustainable agriculture.