Anti-Hunger Advocates Put Pressure On Lawmakers Over Food Stamp Bill
Bottom line: Congress is looking to cut $40m in funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Critics say the program is rife with fraud and abuse, although Agriculture Department data show that the program has lower fraud rates than farm subsidies like crop insurance.
As many as four million people could lose their benefits under the bill. About 47 million people are income eligible to receive food assistance under the current program.
A Census Bureau report released Tuesday found that food stamps have helped lift about four million people above the poverty line and have kept tens of millions more from becoming poorer.
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Anti Hunger Advocates Put Pressure On Lawmakers Over Food Stamp Bill
By Ron Nixon
New York Times
September 18, 2013
WASHINGTON — More than 50 New Yorkers active in anti-hunger efforts, including leaders of food banks and soup kitchens, made their way to Washington last week for a day of lobbying. On Tuesday, the celebrity chef Tom Colicchio, a board member of the group Food Policy Action, met with House Democrats to highlight the need for programs to address hunger.
The advocates’ efforts came as the Republican-controlled House was expected to take up a food stamp bill this week. The measure would cut about $40 billion from the program, which Republican lawmakers say has grown too large. They also said it is rife with fraud and abuse, although Agriculture Department data show that the program has lower fraud rates than farm subsidies like crop insurance.
The bill would also cut off food aid after three months to recipients between the ages of 18 and 50 if they cannot find work or enroll in a job placement program. Exceptions would be granted for those with children who are still minors.
Food stamps have been part of the farm bill, long a bipartisan piece of legislation, since 1973. But because of an ideological divide, lawmakers have been trying for at least two years to agree on a new five-year bill that would continue financing for farm and nutrition programs.
There has been disagreement over continuing subsidies to farmers, who are earning near-record incomes as a group. But the debate over food stamps has been more heated. Food stamps account for nearly 80 percent of the farm bill’s costs, and conservatives in the House — who wanted steeper cuts to food stamps than the proposed $20 billion — killed a broad farm bill in June. It was an embarrassing defeat for Speaker John A. Boehner. The next month, House leaders split the bill’s farm and nutrition sections into separate measures, passing the farm legislation over Democrats’ objections.
Conservatives say the bill now under consideration would make much-needed changes to the food stamp program.
“While we still have a long way to go in reforming both food stamp and farm programs, this is a victory for those who believe that we should measure success by the number of families who get back on their feet, not by how much government increases spending year after year,” Representative Marlin Stutzman, Republican of Indiana, said in a statement on Monday.
But advocates say the cuts would leave millions of people hungry. Numerous studies, including research by the Congressional Budget Office, show that as many as four million people could lose their benefits under the bill. About 47 million people receive food assistance under the current program.
A Census Bureau report released Tuesday found that food stamps have helped lift about four million people above the poverty line and have kept tens of millions more from becoming poorer.
Anti-hunger activists hope their efforts over the past few weeks will persuade lawmakers to vote against the bill, since it is unclear if there are enough Republican votes to pass it. Democrats are solidly opposed, and President Obama said Wednesday that he would veto legislation that contained the cuts.
“Charity can’t do it alone,” said Margarette Purvis, the president of the Food Bank for New York City. “Our network of 1,000 charities are experienced and robust, but we simply can’t make up for a cut of this magnitude.”
Former Senators Bob Dole, Republican of Kansas, and Tom Daschle, Democrat of South Dakota, also called on lawmakers to stop playing politics with hunger in an op-ed article published in The Los Angeles Times on Monday.
“The latest proposal from the House is an about-face on our progress fighting hunger,” they wrote. “If Congress lets this bill fall victim to the misguided and detrimental partisan politics we face today, the results for families and children challenged with hunger will be severe.”
Farm groups, which opposed splitting the original bill, have been largely silent on the upcoming vote on food stamps.
Dale Moore, executive director of public policy for the American Farm Bureau Federation, the nation’s largest farm group, said it had not taken a position on the bill. “It’s out of our hands,” he said.
Even if Republicans manage to pass the food stamp bill, it is unclear how the legislation would be received in the Senate, where some members have expressed opposition to the amount of food stamp cuts in the House bill.
Senator Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan and chairwoman of the Agriculture Committee, on Wednesday called the House bill a relentless assault on the poor and hungry. “The House bill will not see the light of day in the Senate,” she said.
A Senate bill passed in May would cut $4.5 billion from the program. Both chambers want to hammer out differences in their versions of the farm bill before agriculture programs expire. The current bill, passed in 2008 and extended last year, expires at the end of the month.
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