Tarren Bragdon, founder of the Foundation for Government Accountability, a 12-year-old nonprofit organization, said: “We have been hiding in plain view all along.”
The Naples-based Florida think tank was among conservative groups publicly praising Republican efforts to increase the work requirements for safety net program before Washington debt ceiling negotiators agreed on expanding those rules to food stamp recipients Saturday night.
While the White House, Republicans and other lawmakers are now trying to sell their agreement to both Democrats and Republicans in Congress, many low-income Americans already have a limited access to important benefits programs. This is regardless of the outcome of the high wire debt limit battle in Congress. This is due in part to the strategy at the state level, with which the FGA quietly has won despite not having the funding or clout of the major conservative K Street organizations that support shrinking federal safety net.
In interviews conducted recently, more than a half-dozen hunger relief groups in the United States cited the FGA, as the top opponent, in escalating policies over safety net benefits. One aid group feared drawing too much attention to their efforts. They were worried that the FGA would launch a lobbying campaign to reduce food stamp payments in their home state.
As of February 2016, the most recent data available, more than 42,5 million Americans received an estimated $6 per person, per day, to help them buy groceries. This was an increase of 3.2% over a year ago, but it reflects the month just before enhanced benefits from pandemic era expired.
Bragdon estimates that only 20% of FGA policy work is focused on welfare and unemployment. The think tank, along with its lobbying arm, has been a driving force in these issues. They are often the only providers of research that is presented to state legislatures.
It’s never been a better time to transition from welfare dependency to the workforce.
Tarren Bragdon is the CEO of the Foundation for Government Accountability
Recent research shows that the highest food stamp enrollments tend to be in states with low unemployment, but the conservative argument against generous government assistance is still valid in today’s economy. The foundation’s 2022 annual report praised “more than 45 policy victories in the areas of unemployment and welfare to get Americans back to work, and to stop wasteful spending which encourages people to remain at home.”
Bragdon, speaking to NBC News just before the debt ceiling deal was agreed, said that there were “almost 10 million jobs available, many of which start at $12 or $14 an hour.”
He said that the goal is to help them become self-sufficient, so they can live out the American Dream.
State-by-state strategies
Kansas legislators tightened SNAP rules in late April. Voting largely along party-line, they overrode Democratic Governor. Laura Kelly vetoed a bill that would have required most recipients aged 50-59 to either work 30 hours a week or undergo mandatory job training.
Like many other policy-oriented nonprofits, the FGA maintains a lobbying group called Opportunity Solutions Project. State Legislative Records reveal that the OSP hired a local lobbyist Steve Greene last year, who spoke in committee hearings to support stricter criteria for SNAP. The foundation’s annual report called the narrow veto-override “a dramatic win,” fueled by an education campaign that used FGA research and messaging.
The Think Tank supports “universal work requirements” for welfare programs across the board. Bragdon said, “Our strategy is to present a menu reforms and then let state and federal policymakers decide which ones make the most sense, given their dynamics, climate, and environment.”
The group’s modular approach does not only endorse work requirements as a tool to encourage recipients of public assistance into the workforce.
In March of last year, a GOP supermajority passed new restrictions on the state’s authority to waive SNAP rules for recipients living in areas with high unemployment. Kevin Andrus, a Republican state representative, invited Scott Centurino, a senior research fellow at FGA, to speak in a hearing. When a state health department official said that the proposal would shrink federal funding to the state’s SNAP, Andrus responded, “This legislation will help individuals get off their backsides and into the workforce.”
Steve Christiansen, a Republican Representative in the Utah House of 2021 who was hearing a proposal that was nearly identical to this one, called up a representative from OSP to explain it to legislators. Later, the measure was defeated.
Iowa’s Republican supermajority in April passed a new bill that took a different approach. Asset testing is a new policy that would include the value of liquid assets such as cars in the income limit for food assistance and Medicaid. The state lobbying disclosures reveal that the OSP has paid $14,250 in compensation to a consultant for to lobby on behalf of the bill. This was sent to Republican Governor Kim Reynolds last week. Kim Reynolds. Kim Reynolds is expected to sign the bill into law.
Some critics see these actions as less a localized policy approach and more of a partisan effort to achieve a conservative goal that has been in place for many years.
Michelle Book, CEO of Food Bank of Iowa, said that national Republican Party politics played out in this year’s legislative agenda. They continue to say that they will reduce unemployment benefits and SNAP benefits because it will create more workers. But we haven’t seen this.
Book says that the food bank is experiencing a higher demand after Iowa, which was one of the few states to end pandemic-era enhancements for SNAP payments, before the national March 1 deadline, has seen a greater increase in demand. She said that in March of last year, the organization provided services to 110,000 people. In March, it served 169,000 people.
If the value of liquid assets, including personal property and checking and savings account values, but excluding one car, exceeds $15,000 then low-income Iowans would be disqualified from SNAP benefits.
Book explained that people cannot save for their retirement, for education of their children, for emergencies or for additional vehicles for family members who want to go to work. She also said that the Food Bank of Iowa has doubled its Des Moines Distribution Center to 60,000 square foot to purchase and distribute more food.
Some opponents of asset test rules also cited state estimates that found implementing the policy would cost Iowan taxpayers nearly $18 million during the first three years.
Bragdon stated that “a person’s primary vehicle is exempted from any asset test.”
Washington inroads
The FGA and OSP are small operations with limited influence in Washington compared to older and better-funded lobbying and think tanks across the political spectrum.
According to a spokesperson, the foundation employs four “federal affairs managers” who are responsible for sharing ideas on policy with legislators. Bragdon stated that the FGA has now almost 50 full-time employees and 60 contractors including 15 attorneys.
The group, which has advocated on issues such as reducing ranked-choice votes and easing child labor laws, reported that it had raised 15 million dollars in new fundraising during the past year. This is a 26% increase since 2020.
Bragdon explained that the OSP, which is a 501(c),4 tax-exempt organization as specified by the IRS, “must operate exclusively for social welfare,” operates with a budget of about $4 million and employs lobbyists across more than 30 state and Washington, D.C.
Federal Lobbying Disclosures reveal that the OSP paid $130,000 to Robin Walker in the first three months of this year, who is also a senior visiting Fellow for the organization. The money was for “food-stamp reform, work requirements, and TANF”, or Temporary Aid for Needy Families.
The FGA and OSP do not share much information about their funding sources, as is typical of privately-run policy groups. Bragdon estimates that about 75% to 80% of the FGA’s funding comes from individuals – “mostly entrepreneurs” who have experienced the American Dream – and 25% or so from other foundations. Less than 1% came from public companies.
When asked about media reports claiming that the organization has donors such as conservative powerhouses like the Koch-network and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundations, the spokesperson stated the group “protects their identity as a courtesy.”
A spokesperson for the FGA said that it has already developed influential allies in Capitol Hill. One of these is Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who “has been working with the Foundation for Government Accountability for many years.” “He’s proud to have them support several of his reforms to Washington to make it better for Americans, including his Let’s Get to Work Act,” a spokesperson said.
Scott, the FGA ‘s president, introduced this bill in January. It aims to increase work requirements for SNAP clients and those living in public housing. He said, “Nobody who can work should be dependent on the government,” in an FGA video last month.
Bragdon has endorsed at least two other Republican congressional members who have recently proposed tightening work requirements.
Other FGA members are also involved in the shaping of agricultural policy. For example, Rep. Kat Cammack is a Florida Republican, who was elected to Ted Yoho’s seat in 2020. Cammack had previously worked as his deputy chief-of-staff.
Cammack, like her predecessor, sits in the House Agriculture Committee, which every five years debates the reauthorization the farm bill. Nutrition programs such as SNAP are the largest component of funding. The current package expires on Sept. 30, so those talks are already underway.
Cammack has also been appointed to Republicans’ new Select Committee on the Weaponization Federal Government. She joined Bragdon for a Virtual Panel Discussion last summer to discuss her proposal to rollback executive branch regulatory power.
The foundation also has ties to Rep. Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson, R.-Pa. who chairs the House Agriculture Committee. Thompson has expressed skepticism regarding expanding the states’ ability waive SNAP rules. However, he has indicated an openness to tweaking.
In an hearing held last spring, he said: “What frustrates my most is that my Democrat colleagues already have a line drawn in the sand – this program won’t be touched by the next reauthorization.”
Thompson’s office did not respond to comments, and Cammack’s spokesperson declined to make any.
Working but on SNAP
Some economists studying the relationship between SNAP employment and tightening the access to the program question whether it drives more people to the work.
Researchers at the University of Illinois found last month that states with high SNAP participation rates, such as Louisiana and West Virginia, also had the lowest unemployment rate. They said that since the Great Recession in 2008, SNAP and unemployment rates have “diverged”.
Jonathan Coppess said that many people are working, but they don’t earn enough to escape poverty. What is the purpose of a policy that is based on work requirements, when there is no unemployment problem?
Asset tests, in particular, have become more controversial. Recently, anti-hunger advocates asked Texas officials to pass a upcoming House Bill that would update Texas’ existing vehicle asset tests. The last revision was in 2001. Since 2001, inflation has driven up the value of automobiles substantially. This means that many SNAP recipients now qualify for benefits.
Researchers and advocates have also criticized the way FGA presented its data. The group, for example, shared with NBC News materials claiming that 75% of “able bodied adults on Food Stamps don’t work at all.” They used figures that rely on snapshots taken monthly by the Agriculture Department rather than longer time periods, which experts believe may better reflect employment patterns from sources like the Census Bureau.
Many workers enter and leave the job market without their fault.
Ed Bolen The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
A recent analysis of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (a left-of center think tank) cautioned that it was not wise to overstate the unemployment rate for so-called able-bodied adults who are unattached, citing the high turnover and fluctuating work hours at many low-wage positions.
Ed Bolen of the CBPP, director of SNAP State Strategies, says that self-reported data on food stamps may also be incomplete. This is because, under SNAP rules, small income changes between certifications do not need to be reported.
Bolen stated that “Many workers come and go from the labor market without their fault, but because of the nature of work.” It’s important that you look at how the workers have been engaged over time.
FGA has not been successful in all its attempts to reduce SNAP enrollment, even when it comes from Republican statehouses. A GOP legislator blocked the group’s effort to implement asset tests for Ohio in 2021. He said that he wanted recipients to “have food on their table so they can take care their families.”
Bragdon said he believes the latter issue is still a possible messaging win when it comes to debates about trimming SNAP.
He said that “half of the people we are talking about are males.” When people think of welfare, they often think of the single mother that is profiled in a welfare cash-assistance conversation.
Spending Cuts have been a major issue in recent days. Bragdon, however, said that the FGA is pushing for “multiple legislative mechanisms to achieve the same policy.”
He said, “You’ve got the debt ceiling and the farm bill. But you also have an appropriations act.”
Thompson and several other Republican legislators appeared in a video produced by the FGA before the last Farm Bill reauthorization in 2018. They used language that is still being deployed by the think tank to promote increased work requirements.
Thompson stated that people who “use the SNAP Program because they are in financial distress — unemployed, subemployed, or maybe living in poverty for many generations,” “really need to get a shot at the American Dream.”
CORRECTION: (May 25, 5:30 pm ET) In a previous version, the percentage estimated for individual donations to FGA was incorrect. The correct figure is 75% and not 35%. This article has also been edited to clarify how SNAP rules affect self-reported data.
