GOP rep: Work requirements for social benefit programs ‘are not mean’

Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) on Sunday said the expanded work requirements for able-bodied Americans on food stamps, reportedly included in the deal President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) struck in principle on Saturday to lift the debt ceiling and cap spending, are “not mean.”

“You cannot escape poverty without work. You just can’t. It’s got to be a part of the solution. These requirements are not mean,” Johnson, who helped negotiate the deal, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“They’re not onerous. It’s 20 hours a week [of] work, training, education or volunteering at a local food bank. For people who are able-bodied, not pregnant, don’t have kids at home live in an area where there are jobs — we know they work,” he said of the requirements.

Biden and McCarthy said they reached a deal on Saturday that would lift the debt ceiling for two years, with new caps on federal spending. The text isn’t out yet, and the deal still has to get through Congress later this week.

Johnson on Sunday lauded Biden and McCarthy’s deal as “a remarkable conservative accomplishment” with “no wins for Democrats.”

“When you’re saying that conservatives have concerns, it is really the most colorful conservatives,” Johnson said of some GOP criticism of the deal. “Overwhelmingly, Republicans in this conference are going to support the deal. How could they not? It is a fantastic deal.”

The U.S. is facing a June 5 deadline, after which the Treasury has said it will run out of ways to avoid default.

–Updated at 10:26 a.m.