Opinion ID: 6938518
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Food Stamp Survey Applied to AFDC Population.

Text: The Secretary based the $1500 equity limit almost exclusively on a 1979 survey of food-stamp recipients contained in a 1981 report submitted to Congress. 2 Plaintiffs argue that using the 1979 survey to determine the AFDC automobile equity limit led to the adoption of an arbitrary and capricious rule. According to the plaintiffs, the data about food-stamp recipients is not applicable to the AFDC program. Plaintiffs further contend that the Secretary never offered any evidence to show that there was an overlap between the AFDC and food-stamp recipient populations. To be sure, the Secretary could have used data on AFDC families rather than food-stamp recipients. And the Secretary could have drawn a better connection between the data he used and the final rule. But we do not review for a perfect or ideal rule-making process. We look instead to whether the Secretary has acted reasonably, and we think he did. See Brown, 46 F.3d at 109. After announcing the final rule on the automobile equity limit, the Secretary stated that HHS chose $1,500 as the maximum equity value for an automobile on the basis of a Spring 1979 survey of food stamp recipients. Data from that survey suggest that 96 percent of all food stamp recipients who own cars had equity value in them of $1,500 or less. In that the Federal maximum limit should be set within the range of the vast majority of current recipients and given that the food stamp population tends to be, on the average, more affluent than AFDC recipients, this limit appears reasonable and supportable. 47 Fed.Reg. 5657 (1982). The district court, referring to a declaration of Paul Bordes, a director of research at HHS, found that there was a “substantial overlap” between the AFDC and food-stamp recipient populations-80% in 1979 and 87% today. Those figures, which other courts also have cited, reflect the number of AFDC recipients who also receive food stamps. See, e.g., Brown, 46 F.3d at 109. But those figures are not useful in evaluating whether a survey of food-stamp recipients is representative of the AFDC population. For that determination, we must know instead the percentage of food-stamp recipients who receive AFDC benefits. According to the Bordes declaration, that figure is much lower: 41% in 1993. Even though the 1979 survey did not accurately reflect the conditions of AFDC families, the Secretary acted reasonably in relying upon it. First, according to the Bordes declaration, resource data on aid recipients was scarce in 1982. Second, according to Bordes, the non-AFDC food-stamp recipients included in the survey were, on average, more affluent. Therefore, the automobile equity limit was based on a population that was likely to have more expensive cars. Plaintiffs challenge this conclusion, noting that the food-stamp program had an automobile equity limit of $4500 already in place when the survey was done, unlike the AFDC program at the time. They argue that the limit may have been higher if it had been derived from data of AFDC recipients alone. But as the Sixth Circuit noted in Hazard, “the 1979 vehicle asset limitation for food stamp recipients excluded only a small percentage of individuals who otherwise would have been eligible receive food stamps.” 44 F.3d at 405. Therefore, the $4500 limit probably did not have a significant effect on the limit. 3 The plaintiffs further argue that using the 1979 survey undermined a goal of the AFDC program: to allow individuals to be self-reliant and independent. We think it was reasonable for the Secretary to conclude from the 1979 survey that, in 1981, a $1500 auto equity limit would allow AFDC recipients to own functional cars. Other courts have agreed. See, e.g., Hazard, 44 F.3d at 405; Brown, 46 F.3d at 108-09; Champion, 33 F.3d at 966. 4