Clinton Offers Plan to Help Poor People Get Jobs
Dateline: 02/24/00
Recognizing the importance of adequate personal transportation to being employed, President Clinton has proposed plans to help low-income people get jobs by making it easier for them to own cars.
The heart of the plan is a proposed change to the way in which the value of a car affects a person's eligibility to receive food-stamps.
Currently, owning a car with a value of $4,650 or more prevents a family from qualifying for the food-stamp program. As a result, many people choose participation in the food-stamp program over owing a car.
Under the President's plan, food-stamp eligibility would be based on the amount of equity a person has in a car rather than the car's market value.
A car's equity is its market value minus any money still owed by its owner. The President proposes that any car with $1,000 or less in equity would not count against the overall maximum asset total allowed for a food-stamp recipient family.
The President estimates this new regulation would help 150,000 people own a car while keeping their food-stamp eligibility.
In addition, the President has asked Congress to allow state food-stamp programs to enact similar changes in their welfare programs, thus helping 245,000 more families own cars without losing food-stamps.
The changes in federal and state food-stamp programs would cost $1.2 billion over five years, according to White House estimates.
To help all these people get to work in their new cars, President Clinton asks Congress to allocate $150 million in 2001 for local transportation grants supporting projects to help low-income persons get to work. This request would double the funds spent on similar programs in this year's budget.
Finally, the President requests that Congress change the Individual Development Accounts program to allow participants to use a portion of their government subsidized savings to buy cars. The Individual Development Accounts program currently subsidizes the savings accounts of qualified low-income persons to help them buy first homes, go to college, or start new businesses.
Reference Resources
White House Fact Sheet
Details on the President's proposed initiatives to help low-income persons buy cars and gain employment. Published by the White House on 2/23/00.Food Stamp Program Eligibility Regulations
The rules currently used by the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service.
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