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University of Wisconsin–Madison
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

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  • Farm bill on verge of passage after a long three years of haggling in Congress, By Ed O’Keefe and Kimberly Kindy, February 3, 2014, Washington Post: “Congress is on the verge of dramatically overhauling federal farm and nutrition policies affecting a broad range of issues, from how food is packaged and sold to how the government helps poor people pay for their groceries. After three years of arduous haggling, the Senate is expected to give final passage Tuesday to a new five-year farm bill that the House passed last week. President Obama is expected to sign it when it gets to his desk. The $956.4 billion package has sailed through Congress in recent days with little opposition, making it a rare bipartisan accomplishment in an otherwise rancorous and unproductive era…”
  • Does slicing $8 billion from food stamps cut to bone or just trim some flab?, By Mark Trumbull, February 4, 2014, Christian Science Monitor: “The farm bill that Congress approved on Tuesday contains a controversial $8 billion cut in the food stamp program that millions of Americans rely on as a defense against hunger. Many Democrats oppose the measure, arguing the cut is too steep and will hurt about 1.7 million of the neediest Americans. Republicans have the opposite concern: Many say the bill doesn’t make large enough cuts to an entitlement program that needs reform after doubling in size since 2007. What’s the reality..?”
  • Congress OKs food stamp cuts in farm bill, By Jake Grovum, February 4, 2014, Stateline: “A long-overdue farm bill will change the way more than a dozen states issue food stamps and cut benefits for as many as 850,000 Americans. The legislation gained final approval from Congress Tuesday. The compromise measure avoids some of the deep cuts proposed by Republicans in the House as the debate over the broader farm bill – which comprises crop insurance spending, farm subsidies and the food stamp program, among other issues – played out. The debate came as enrollment and spending on food stamps, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, reached record levels. In the previous fiscal year, the U.S. spent more than $78 billion on the program and enrollment has regularly topped 47 million Americans since the Great Recession…”