- Food stamp bills seek to restrict junk food, By Richard Fausset, January 29, 2012, Los Angeles Times: “Ronda Storms is a Republican state senator from Florida. She is also a mom who buys the groceries for her family of four. A few months ago, Storms, 46, started noticing that some fellow shoppers were using federal food stamp money to purchase a lot of unhealthful junk. And it galled her – at a time when Florida was cutting Medicaid reimbursement rates, public school funding and jobs – that people were indulging in sugary, fatty, highly-processed treats on the public dime. ‘If we’re going to be cutting services across the board,’ she said, ‘then people can live without potato chips, without store-bought cookies, without their sodas.’ That sense of unfairness, plus a concern about the health of needy children, is the motivation behind a bill Storms sponsored that would prohibit people from purchasing ‘nonstaple, unhealthy foods’ with funds provided by the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP…”
- No more treats with food stamps?, By Kathleen Haughney, January 31, 2012, South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “Should the state be able to prevent people from using food stamps to buy junk food at the grocery store? For Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood, and Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, the answer is yes. The two lawmakers are sponsoring legislation – HB 1401 and SB 1658 – that would ban the use of food stamps to buy items such as soda and sweets like candy, cake or ice cream. ‘Should the taxpayer foot the bill for Mountain Dew?’ Storms asked the Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee last week. Said Plakon to the House Health and Human Services Access Subcommittee on Monday: ‘You can’t buy certain items in the grocery store right now with food stamps. We’re just talking about how big that list is.’ But the issue has ignited criticism, generating complaints even from Plakon’s and Storms’ GOP colleagues…”
- Brownback officials defend Kansas’ new food stamp policy, By Brad Cooper, January 31, 2012, Kansas City Star: “Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration on Monday fended off suggestions that it is trying to ferret out undocumented immigrants with a new Kansas policy that cuts food stamp benefits for anyone in the country illegally. Appearing before the House Appropriations Committee, a top official at the state social services agency said the new food stamp policy is only intended to level the playing field between U.S. citizens and illegal immigrants. Michelle Schroeder, the agency’s policy director, told the committee that the new food stamp policy is intended to eliminate discriminatory elements of the old policy. ‘We could have kept the previous policy,’ Schroeder told the committee. ‘We just thought it was better policy to equalize the way we treat income for all households.’ Under the new formula, the state uses the entire income of all members of a household in determining eligibility…”
- The clash over fingerprinting for food stamps, By Cindy Rodriguez, January 30, 2012, National Public Radio: “Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants New York City to stop requiring fingerprinting of its food stamp recipients, a stance that puts him at odds with the city’s mayor, who favors the practice. Cuomo says fingerprinting stigmatizes needy people and stops them from applying for help. In a recent State of the State speech, Cuomo pledged to stop fingerprinting food stamp recipients this year. But New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says without fingerprinting, fraud would escalate. Besides Arizona, New York is the only place where the policy still exists…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty