The Trump administration has made what many might consider it's most ludicrous proposal yet. The President, signed an executive order Tuesday calling on states should begin tightening restrictions on welfare programs. Among these was a plan to begin drug testing EBT recipients to determine whether or not they should receive benefits. The AP, claims that the plan is intended to target able-bodied people without dependents who are seeking, "certain specialized jobs."

The proposal itself is similar to proposals put forth by Wisconsin Governor, Scott Walker. Many states, including Florida, have put forward similar proposals, only to have them thrown out due to the Supreme Court ruling them unconstitutional. While federal law prohibits drug screening of EBT recipient's, USDA secretary, Sonny Purdue, promised to provide states a greater amount of autonomy regarding the distribution of SNAP benefits.

"As a former governor, I know first-hand how important it is for states to be given the flexibility to achieve the desired goal of self-sufficiency for people," Purdue said. " We want to provide the nutrition people need, but we also want to help them transition from government programs, back to work, and into lives of independence."

This is not the first time Trump or the GOP have poked holes in the SNAP program. In Febru ay President Trump suggested Food Stamps be replaced by home-grown organic food with little regard to the food allergies of certain EBT recipients. In 2013 Republicans voted to cut EBT program funding by $40 billion dollars over the course of 10 years. The problem with replacing food stamps with Department of Agriculture foodstuffs and states drug testing recipients in that both plans would be more costly rather than less costly.

Former USDA Food and Nutrition Service Undersecretary, Kevin Concannon, agrees, calling the EBT proposal, "Costly and cumbersome." Concannon went on to say that the administration,"Is keen on weakening the programs developed to strengthen the health or fairness or access to programs and imposing populist requirements that aren't evidence-based, but often stigmatize people." In 2016 43.6 million U.S. citizens were enrolled in the SNAP program.

While this number might seem daunting, it is an improvement from 47.6 million recipients enrolled during the great recession from 2009-2013. "I think we just have to be ready because my guess is we might get an hours notice as opposed to days notice." SNAP associate director Jessica Shanin wrote regarding a possible announcement from the White House.