Welfare recipients can't use their EBT cards at liquor stores, but they can at marijuana dispensaries in states that have legalized pot, such as Colorado, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions revealed Tuesday.
The Alabama Republican announced that he was drafting legislation to close the welfare loophole after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services confirmed to him that EBT cards could be used at marijuana shops. EBT has replaced food stamps, or other federal benefits.
"The federal government current spends roughly $750 billion each year on means-tested welfare programs across 80 different accounts. This money is administered by a vast, sprawling bureaucracy with little oversight and no moral vision," said Sessions, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee.
"Surely we can all agree that the guiding principle ought to be that benefits are reserved for those in real need," he said, according to The Washington Times.
Colorado pot shops currently have ATMs where welfare recipients can take cash using their EBT cards. A State Senate committee rejected Republicans' proposal to close this loophole in January, according to Fox News.
But Sessions noted that Congress passed laws in 2011 that allowed HHS to prohibit Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash benefits from being spent at liquor stores, casinos and stip clubs. But the department did not interpret that authority to include marijuana shops.
