AB 1

This bill requires the Department of Health Services to set required hours of

participation in the FoodShare employment and training program, known as FSET,

to coincide with the maximum allowed by the federal government. FoodShare is also

known as the food stamp program and the federal Supplemental Nutrition

Assistance Program and is administered by DHS. An able-bodied adult is 18 years

of age or older but younger than 50 years of age, not pregnant, not exempt from a

work requirement under federal regulations, and not determined to be medically

certified as physically or mentally unfit for employment. Currently, able-bodied

adults without dependents are required to comply with certain work requirements

as a condition of FoodShare eligibility, though the FSET program is voluntary. The

biennial budget act,

2017 Wisconsin Act 59

, specified that DHS may require

able-bodied adults to participate in FSET and allowed DHS to require a subset of,

instead of all, able individuals who are 18 to 60 years of age and who are not

Wisconsin Works participants to participate in FSET, to the extent allowed by the

federal government. Able-bodied adults who are caretakers of a child under the age

of six and able-bodied adults who are at least half-time students are exempt from

FSET requirements.

The bill requires DHS to set any required hours of participation in FSET for

able-bodied adults without dependents at the maximum hours allowed by the

federal government if able-bodied adults without dependents are required to

participate in FSET. If DHS does this, it shall also set the required hours of

participation in FSET at the maximum hours allowed by the federal government for

able-bodied adults with dependents.