(St. Louis Public Radio) – Missouri lawmakers have successfully overridden Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of legislation to reduce lifetime eligibility for welfare recipients.
The Missouri House today voted 113-24 to overturn Nixon’s veto of Senate Bill 24. It would limit lifetime eligibility of people enrolled in Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, or TANF, to three years and nine months from five years.
The sponsor, Sen. David Sater, R-Cassville, hailed the bill’s passage as an incentive to get low-income Missourians fully back into the work force.
“We currently have a broken system that discourages work and needlessly creates welfare dependency. Missouri is not the first state to go in this direction, but we are unique because we are reinvesting the money we save into resources to improve work participation and empower more Missourians to become employed and independent.”
House Minority Floor Leader Jake Hummel, D-St. Louis, blasted the override of Nixon’s veto.
“To take the extraordinary step of overriding a veto to ensure that more than 6,300 of Missouri’s poorest children are plunged even deeper into poverty is mind blowing in its cruelty. Missouri Republicans are engaged in nothing short of an all-out war on the poor and, unfortunately, they are winning.”