Op-Ed
CBO: One Big Beautiful Bill Grows the Economy, Cuts Taxes & Slows Welfare Spending
February 12, 2026 · David Ditch
Over the 2017-2019 period (the most recent complete data available), an average of 38 percent of able-bodied adults receiving food stamps were employed, while 62 percent did not work at all.
Work by this population of work-capable adults is only slightly higher than the 24 percent of all adults receiving food stamps who work.
Those who do work, do not work very much.
In fact, only 18 percent of ABAWDs age 18-49 worked the 20 or more hours per week needed to satisfy the work requirement through employment between FY 2017 and 2019. This means that 82 percent of those subject to the work requirement did not work enough hours.
These ABAWDs potentially could have satisfied the work requirement through job training or volunteering. However, it is most likely that these work-capable adults were waived or exempted from the work requirements altogether.
The table below summarizes data from the USDA on the work efforts of able-bodied food stamp recipients between FY 2017 to 2019, which is the period where complete data is available.
Work is an important value that is vital to human flourishing for individuals, families, communities, and the United States. The food stamp program provides billions of dollars in benefits to millions of work-capable people each year. Unfortunately, the food stamp program undermines work and traps too many people in dependency, rather than promoting opportunity.
Congress should strengthen food stamp work requirements by including all work capable adults, eliminating geographic waivers, phasing up the hours of expected effort, and preventing a lifetime of dependency.
