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…”
Farm bill would trim food stamps, shift crop subsidies, By Mary Clare Jalonick (AP), January 29, 2014, Boston Globe: “Farm-state lawmakers are lobbying colleagues member by member, vote by vote as they push for House passage of a massive, five-year bill that would make cuts to food stamps and continue generous subsidies for farmers. There are goodies scattered through the almost 1,000-page bill for members from all regions of the country: a boost in money for crop insurance popular in the Midwest; higher rice and peanut subsidies for Southern farmers; renewal of federal land payments for Western states. There are cuts to the food stamp program — $800 million a year, or around 1 percent — for Republicans who say the program is spending too much money, but they are low enough that some Democrats will support them…”
Bill boosts farmers, cuts food stamps, By Jerry Zremski, January 28, 2014, Buffalo News: “A bipartisan Farm Bill that’s soon to be voted on in Congress looks like a boon to farmers of Western New York – at the expense of food stamp recipients in cities like Buffalo. The bill, which House and Senate negotiators completed late Tuesday, provides a new insurance program for growers of ‘specialty crops’ such as the apples from Niagara County’s orchards, while apparently protecting upstate dairy farmers from the worst of the deep cuts in farm support programs. Meanwhile, though, a complex change in the food stamp program could reduce benefits for 300,000 New York households, according to the office of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo…”
850,000 may have $90 less in food stamps, By Jennifer Liberto, January 17, 2014, CNNMoney: “A deal on food stamps in Congress could trim as much as $90 a month from 850,000 of the nation’s poorest who seek help to buy groceries. The measure is part of the latest farm bill and aims to cut about $9 billion from food stamps over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Research Service. It’s less than the $39 billion that Republicans had wanted to cut from the program; but double what Democrats had suggested…”
Food banks anticipate impact of cuts to food stamps, By Ron Nixon, January 21, 2014, New York Times: “Late last year, staff members at the Capital Area Food Bank here began fielding requests for larger deliveries from the dozens of soup kitchens and food pantries that it supplies as more and more people showed up seeking help. The food bank said it was not unusual to see a surge before Thanksgiving or Christmas. But this time the lines were caused not by the holidays but by a $5 billion cut to the federal food stamp program that took effect in November when a provision in the 2009 stimulus bill expired. Now the food bank, which provided about 45 million pounds of food last year, says it is preparing for even greater demand as Congress prepares to cut billions of dollars more from the food stamp program, which is included in a farm bill that has yet to pass. About 47 million Americans receive food stamps…”
