Another Voice: Don’t let Farm Bill take food from the hungry op-ed by Susan Zimet
10/22/2018
The congressional farm bill, the federal policy on agriculture and food programs, comes up for reauthorization every five years. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly food stamps, is included in this omnibus legislation. SNAP provides food assistance for more than 40 million low income people, or one in eight Americans. Despite providing a modest benefit of $1.40 per person per meal, SNAP helps put food on the table, and has long-term benefits for children’s health and educational attainment.
SNAP is the country’s most effective anti-poverty program, lifting nearly 8.4 million people out of poverty, including 3.8 million children in 2015. SNAP also has one of the most rigorous quality control systems of any public benefit program.
In the past, with bipartisan support, farm bills that protected the SNAP program were reauthorized. However, in the past few years, the Republican House is determined to take away this program from many in need, along with cutting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. This past session the House Republicans passed a bill without Democratic support that will reduce or eliminate benefits for more than 1 million households, which include 2 million people.
The Republican House is trying to spin this to say they want to give SNAP recipients the dignity of work. However, they know full well that most SNAP recipients work one to two jobs, many part time with no guaranteed hours. They are imposing unworkable requirements that […]