Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Ms. STABENOW. Madam President, first of all, the great news is, we have a robust economy growing, more small businesses opening, the lowest unemployment rate in a generation, and we all want people to be able to work.

Let me speak to the reality of what is in this bill. First of all, we have had work requirements for people who are single adults with no dependents since the 1990s. If you don't work, if you are not in school, the most you can qualify for is 3 months' worth of SNAP within 3 years. That is current law--$6 a day is what we are talking about.

This bill extends that out in terms of the age, of the number of people required to be in school or at work, with certainly important exemptions for our seniors, for our veterans, and our homeless, and it is in place until 2030.

Here is my question: How do you tell your constituents that you are willing to default, create a catastrophic default now that will raise their unemployment, cost us jobs, raise interest rates, and so on, because you want to change something that is going to be in place until 2030--2030? We have plenty of time to revisit it at that point. This is a bipartisan agreement.

I would just suggest it is very irresponsible for us to change something here that we know--the House is gone. We are going to go into default. We make a change and say it is because we wanted something to be extended beyond 2030. I would suggest we give this a chance, evaluate it.

I would suggest we vote no.

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Ms. STABENOW. Madam President, I will be equally brief. The good news is this is already required by law.

This is a total duplication. States must already provide up-to-date employment data in order to measure if they hit a 10-percent unemployment rate in order to get a State waiver. This is unnecessary. Please do not risk a default of our country on language that is already in the law.

Would my friend accept a voice vote?
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