Congressman Randy Neugebauer Says New Food Stamps Reforms Should Help Move People Away From Government Dependency [AUDIO]

On Monday's edition of Lubbock's First News, Congressman Randy Neugebauer talked with Tom Collins and Laura Mac about the latest going on in Washington.

One of the tasks Congress will be looking at this week is writing up a new Farm Bill, specifically the portion of the bill regarding food stamps. Neugebauer said that, so far, he is pleased to see a lot of "common sense" reform being introduced in the food stamps portion of the new bill. He explained that these reforms would not only help prevent people from abusing the food stamps program, but also help those who are able-bodied to work their way off of food stamps.

This is about making sure that you actually qualify for these benefits and not allowing states to gain the system, not paying people bonuses, for example, to sign people up on food stamps. But more importantly, there's some provisions in there that if you're an able-bodied worker, you may be unemployed but you're at least out there trying to work and move yourself away from being permanently on food stamps. What we find is that when people get on food stamps, unfortunately, they stay on food stamps.

Neugebauer went on to say that enrollment in the food stamps program has nearly doubled in the past few years, and at the rate it's increasing, it is unsustainable. However, he also said that there are those people truly in need of this program, and that he is not looking to do away with it altogether. Instead, Neugebauer explained that he wants to move people away from depending on the government to being self sufficient. Neugebauer also took several listener calls concerning food stamps.

Listen to the full interview with Congressman Randy Neugebauer here: