WEST VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE
2024 REGULAR SESSION
Introduced House Bill 5642
By Delegates Jeffries, Hott, Barnhart, and Heckert [Introduced February 12, 2024; Referred to the Committee on Health and Human Resources]
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1 A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new section,
2 designated §9-8-2a, relating to expanding the employment and training requirements
3 necessary to receive SNAP benefits; defining and developing exemptions; clarifying the
4 Secretary’s duties when there is a lack of funding or inability to provide employment and
5 training; and identifying when assignments to the employment and training program may
6 not be suspended.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
ARTICLE 8. ELIGIBILITY AND FRAUD REQUIREMENTS FOR PUBLIC ASSISTANCE.
§9-8-2a. SNAP Employment and Training.
1 (a) Under the authority given to a state agency to operate the general work requirement
2 pursuant to 7 U.S.C. § 2015(d), the Department of Health & Human Resources shall assign all
3 individuals who are over the age of 17 and under the age of 60 to an employment and training
4 program as defined in 7 U.S.C. § 2015(d)(4) unless the individual is:
5 (1) Currently subject to and complying with a work registration requirement under title IV of
6 the Social Security Act [42 USCS § 601 et seq.], as amended (42 U.S.C. 602) or the Federal-State
7 unemployment compensation system, in which case, failure by the person to comply with any work
8 requirement to which the person is subject is the same as failure to comply with the general work
9 requirement;
10 (2) A parent or other member of a household with responsibility for the care of a dependent
11 child under age six or of an incapacitated person;
12 (3) A bona fide student enrolled at least half time in any recognized school, training
13 program, or institution of higher education (except any such person enrolled in an institution of
14 higher education who are ineligible to participate under 7 U.S.C. § 2015(d);
15 (4) A regular participant in a drug addiction or alcoholic treatment and rehabilitation
16 program;
17 (5) Employed a minimum of 30 hours per week or receiving weekly earnings which equal
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18 the minimum hourly rate under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as amended (29 U.S.C.
19 206(a)(1)), multiplied by 30 hours; or
20 (6) A person between the ages of 16 and 18 who is not a head of a household or who is
21 attending school, or enrolled in an employment training program, on at least a half-time basis.
22 (b) The Department of Health & Human Resources may develop a list of additional, non-
23 federal exemptions from participation such as, but not necessarily including exemptions for lack of
24 public/private transportation or pregnancy, but may not, in any fiscal year, provide exemptions to a
25 number of individuals equal to or greater than 20 percent of the total number of work registrants
26 enrolled the previous fiscal year without first receiving explicit authorization from the Legislature to
27 do so.
28 (c) If the Secretary of the Department of Health & Human Resources finds that
29 employment and training assignments cannot be funded or provided to all individuals subject to
30 such assignment under this section, the secretary shall:
31 (1) Submit a report within 14 days of failing to make a required assignment to all members
32 of the Legislature containing:
33 (A) An attestation that the department has expended the state's biennial employment and
34 training grant from the federal government;
35 (B) An attestation that the department has received and expended its ABAWD pledge
36 funding from the federal government;
37 (C) A detailed explanation of the cost-saving measures considered and taken to increase
38 the number of assignments, including online training, work experience components, or work
39 partnership, and why further assignments cannot be made within existing funding streams despite
40 those measures;
41 (D) Recommendations for additional funding streams related to workforce training that
42 would be more effectively used to increase workforce participation by directing funds toward
43 employment and training assignments or an explanation for why such redirection from other
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44 funding streams would not be more effective to that end;
45 (E) The percentage of work registrants assigned to an employment and training program in
46 the previous month, to be updated and resubmitted monthly to all members of the Legislature; and
47 (F) A plan for how the department plans to restart assignments for all individuals subject to
48 assignment within six months without additional funding using more scalable and affordable
49 employment and training assignments such as participation in online training, work experience
50 components, or work partnerships.
51 (2) Continue to assign as many individuals subject to the requirement as possible,
52 prioritizing adults without dependents who have been enrolled for more than two years.
53 (d) The Department of Health & Human Resources may not stop making assignments or
54 decline to assign any individual to an employment and training program because the work
55 requirement for able-bodied adults without dependents under 7 U.S.C. §2015(o) has been
56 suspended partially or wholly by the department, state, or federal government.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to expand the employment and training requirements necessary to receive SNAP benefits Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.
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Statutes affected: Introduced Version: 9-8-2a