Anger in the area over cuts to food stamps, By Alfred Lubrano, July 22, 2013, Philadelphia Inquirer: “For the first time in 40 years, Congress has decided to give subsidies to farmers – many of them rich – while offering nothing to fund the food-stamp program that experts believe keeps poor Americans from starving. The decision last week comes after conservative Republicans in the House blocked a bill that would have slashed $20 billion from the food-stamp budget, saying the cut was too small. The antipoverty community in Philadelphia and throughout the nation is convulsed with anger. It is convinced that it is witnessing a coordinated GOP effort to gut the food-stamp program, considered by some the most important part of the U.S. safety net…”
Tag: Farm Bill
The Farm Bill and SNAP
- House approves farm bill, without food stamp program, By Jonathan Weisman and Ron Nixon, July 11, 2013, New York Times: “Republicans muscled a pared-back agriculture bill through the House on Thursday, stripping out the food stamp program to satisfy recalcitrant conservatives but losing what little Democratic support the bill had when it failed last month. It was the first time food stamps had not been a part of the farm bill since 1973. The 216-to-208 vote saved House Republican leaders from an embarrassing reprisal of the unexpected defeat of a broader version of the bill in June, but the future of agriculture policy remains uncertain. The food stamp program, formally called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, was 80 percent of the original bill’s cost, and it remains the centerpiece of the Senate’s bipartisan farm bill…”
- As numbers increase, a battle over food stamps, By Sharyn Jackson, July 11, 2013, Des Moines Register: “After long days as a Wal-Mart employee, a nursing student at DMACC and single mother of five, Susanna Harrison spends her nights juggling numbers. After using most of her minimum-wage salary to cover rent and medicine for her kids, she’s left stretching food stamps to feed her children. She looks for sales and chooses items that she knows will last longest. ‘It’s a lot of late nights,’ said Harrison, 31. ‘Between the kids and schoolwork and work and trying to fit in setting down a budget, this is what I have to play with at the grocery store.’ Harrison is one of the more than 400,000 Iowans on food stamps, today known as food assistance, delivered via a debit-card-like system. The federal program distributes close to $75 billion to more than 46 million Americans, half of whom are children…”
The Farm Bill and SNAP
House defeats a farm bill with big food stamp cuts, By Ron Nixon, June 20, 2013, New York Times: “Opposition by Democrats to huge cuts in the food stamp program helped lead to the defeat of the House farm bill on Thursday, raising questions about financing for the nation’s farm and nutrition programs this year. The vote, which was 234 to 195 to defeat it, came a year after House leaders refused to bring the five-year, $940 billion measure to the floor because conservative lawmakers who wanted deeper cuts in the food stamp program would not support it…”