WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans resurrected a 1990s-era fight over food stamps in their budget approved last week, arguing that any serious attempt to cut spending must include an overhaul of government programs that help needy families pay for food.

Congress already has started cutting some food programs, including reducing the Women, Infants and Children Program by $500 million as part of a deal on this year's budget. And last year, more than $2 billion in future funding for food stamps was redirected to other programs.

On Friday, the House approved a Republican proposal to overhaul the $65 billion food stamp program - known officially as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP — by replacing it with capped block grants to states, which would pay for the aid but make it contingent on work or job training. That proposal was included in a 2012 budget plan put forward by Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.

His plan lays out a fiscal vision for cutting $6.2 trillion from yearly federal deficits over the coming decade and has drawn widespread attention for its call for transforming Medicare into a voucher-like system that subsidizes purchases of private health insurance. It is likely to meet strong opposition is the Senate, where Democrats still have a majority.

The food-stamp component is similar to changes Republicans proposed as part of the welfare overhaul signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996, and Ryan echoed arguments from 15 years ago in his proposal, saying "America's safety net does not become a hammock that lulls able-bodied citizens into lives of complacency and dependency."

But back then, farm-state Republicans such as Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, who was then chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, blocked the reform effort.