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What supporters of food assistance programs are saying about farm bill food stamp policy
Story Date: 2/3/2014
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Source: US HOUSE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, 1/31/14
For more information on the Farm Bill’s savings in food assistance, click here.
Bob Greenstein, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:
“Congress did not intend for states to stretch the benefit rules this way and longstanding [food stamp] supporters like myself find it difficult to defend… It’s difficult to defend the practice of giving people higher benefits for supposedly paying bills they don’t, in fact, pay … If Congress doesn’t address the weakness in the SUA rules, SNAP’s opponents surely will use it to tarnish the program in the public mind as they lay the groundwork for more radical and damaging changes to the program.” Additionally, the Farm Bill “includes provisions designed to provide SNAP households with more access to healthy food outlets such as farmers’ markets, to ensure that retailers that participate in the program offer a healthy variety of foods for sale, and to tighten retailer compliance with SNAP rules.”
The New York Times Editorial Board:
“On balance, the bill is clearly worthy of support, particularly because it will prevent austerity fanatics in future Congresses from gutting food stamps for the next five years… Most of [those affected] live in the 16 states that have taken advantage of a loophole in a utility-assistance program, receiving benefits that Congress did not intend. That loophole should have been closed…”
Washington Post Editorial Board
This ““loophole… costs taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars each year — and gives an otherwise vital component of the social safety net a black eye.” “This maneuver results in many people receiving money based on utility expenses they did not actually incur.” For Members of Congress looking to gut food stamps, this “looks less like a clever way to help the poor and more like a political gift to SNAP’s perennial opponents.” The Farm Bill’s policy would affect “only 4 percent of all SNAP families,” and “crucially, none would lose basic eligibility.”
Oran Hesterman, Fair Food Network:
“Congress should pass this farm bill.” The 2014 Farm Bill “is the best chance we have of protecting the integrity of this program, which is critical to the food security of low-income Americans… With incentive programs like those supported by the farm bill, we can begin to turn SNAP from strictly an anti-hunger program into an anti-hunger and pro-health program.” “This farm bill limits some of the egregious payments to rich, corporate farms that should have been done away with long ago. Many of the likely provisions promote healthy food systems in unprecedented ways. I have hope that we can improve our nation’s nutrition assistance to better serve both farmers and those in need. Congress should pass the farm bill and bring us closer to that reality.”
Additional reading:
Washington Post editorial (“Congress should close a food stamp loophole”): http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/congress-should-close-a-food-stamp-loophole/2013/12/30/23736316-699c-11e3-8b5b-a77187b716a3_story.html
Bob Greenstein commentary:
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=4081
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Analysis:
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=4082
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