MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Parents who work fewer than 80 hours a month could face food stamp benefit cuts under a proposal Gov. Scott Walker released Monday.
Walker's proposal would also require adults with children between age 6 and 18 to attend job training and search for work five days a week. It was part of a package of welfare reforms called "Wisconsin Works for Everyone" that Walker released during a series of news conferences across the state.
Walker is also calling for a similar work requirement for people receiving housing vouchers from the federal government. Under current state law only childless adults have to meet the work requirement.
Walker's new proposals could require law changes by Congress and waivers from President Donald Trump's administration before taking effect. They would also have to pass the Republican-controlled state Legislature.
Walker has been saying that he hopes to work closely with the Trump administration on a variety of initiatives, including welfare reform. Walker is expected to seek a third term in 2018 and will be spelling out his priorities for the next two years in the state budget he releases in February.
Walker released few details of the welfare reform package on Monday, saying those would come in the budget. Both of the new work requirements would begin as pilot programs, but Walker didn't say where. His outline also doesn't say how much the new requirements would cost.
Adults who have children between the ages of 6 and 18 would be required to work at least 80 hours a month or face a "partial" reduction in benefits. Walker didn't say how much that reduction could be.
The new initiatives build off current state law that imposes work requirements on childless adults who receive food stamps. That law cuts off benefits to food stamp recipients who after three months of non-compliance.
Walker said he also wants to ease people off receiving child-care assistance from the state once they become employed and start earning more money. Once someone becomes employed and hits 200 percent of the poverty line, they would start contributing $1 copay for child care for every $3 they earn.
He also wants to expand programs to help people released from prison re-enter the workforce; create a tax credit to help young people aging out of foster care and those with disabilities who are working; and create a new tax credit for low-income parents who do not have custody of their children but are fulfilling their child support obligations.
Walker is also calling on the Trump administration to clear the way for the state to drug test some welfare recipients.
"All of these with the idea that we want to get people to work," Walker said at a Milwaukee news conference. "We fundamentally believe that public assistance should be a trampoline not a hammock."
Robert Kraig, with the liberal advocacy group Wisconsin Citizen Action, criticized Walker's proposals saying they will do nothing to help create more family supporting jobs. Kraig said Walker was penalizing low-income residents for their own poverty.
Walker said the new proposals are based on the fundamental principle that work is dignifying and connects people to society.
"We believe our public assistance programs should ask able-bodied adults to take steps toward self-sufficiency through work, while also providing comprehensive told to help them get a job and keep a job," Walker said in a statement.
Walker said the proposals build off welfare reform championed by fellow Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson in 1996. Thompson was joining Walker on Monday to announce the plans.
Walker promised in his State of the State speech earlier this month to be a national leader in welfare reform, just as Thompson was in the 1990s. Thompson left midway through his fourth term as governor in 2001 to become U.S. Department of Health Services secretary under then-President George W. Bush.
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UPDATE: Gov. Scott Walker wants to require more people receiving public welfare benefits to be working or searching for work.
Walker announced Monday that is intends to propose new work requirements on able-bodied adults with school-age children who are receiving food stamps through the FoodShare program. He is also calling for imposing work requirements on able-bodied adults receiving housing assistance.
Walker says the requirements would be similar to current state law requiring childless adults receiving food stamps who don't work 80 hours a month to participate in job training.
Walker says the new proposals would be started as a pilot. Walker's office says any sanctions for non-compliance would affect only the adult's portion of the benefit.
More details were to come in his budget next month.
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MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Gov. Scott Walker is releasing a welfare reform package that he says builds upon work done in the 1990s by former Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson.
Walker tweeted Monday that the initiative he was announcing will be called "Wisconsin Works for Everyone." He was to reveal details of the proposal at a series of news conferences around the state.
Thompson was to join Walker for the last stop in the Capitol late Monday afternoon.
Walker promised in his State of the State speech earlier this month to be a national leader in welfare reform, just as Thompson was in the 1990s.
Walker in December wrote to then president-elect Donald Trump asking for more state control over welfare programs, including allowing Wisconsin to require drug tests for some people receiving food stamps.
