President Donald Trump signed an executive order April 11 instructing federal agencies that provide assistance to low-income individuals to strengthen work requirements if they already exist and look for ways to implement them if they do not, according to The Washington Post.
These agencies, including HHS, are supposed to review their policies and submit recommendations to the White House within 90 days. "Welfare reform is necessary to prosperity and independence," Andrew Bremberg, assistant to the president and director of President Trump's domestic policy council, told The Washington Post.
The executive order garnered praise from conservatives, and the Trump administration drew attention to the work requirements for childless adults implemented in Kansas, which they claim led to a 75 percent drop in welfare caseloads. However, the move has drawn criticism from liberal activists. Many say those drawing on public benefits already work, but their jobs simply do not pay enough.
"Work requirements are inconsistent with the realities of poverty in America and are unlikely to provide any resolution," Valerie Wilson, director of the Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy at the Economic Policy Institute, told The Washington Post. "The truth is that a majority of poor people who can work, do work — more than 60 percent."