Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The House is expected to pass a Tea-Publican bill Thursday night that would reduce spending for food stamps by $39 billion over 10 years, according to an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office. The Washington Post reports, House to vote on deep cuts to food-stamp program:
The GOP measure would slash about $39 billion over the next decade for food stamps, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which is providing an average of $133 in monthly aid to more than 47 million Americans, according to a recent government report.
The proposal differs sharply from a Senate plan passed this summer that
would cut roughly $4.5 billion in SNAP money mostly by reducing
administrative expenses.
Thursday’s vote will be a key test for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor
(R-Va.), who abandoned four decades of congressional tradition this
summer by splitting apart the farm bill to consider the nutrition
funding separately. In July, the House narrowly approved a package
that includes about $195 billion in crop subsidies over the next 10
years; that legislation proposes a wholesale overhaul for many
agricultural and conservation programs and an end to direct payments to
farmers.
The agriculture part of the plan mirrors provisions in a Senate farm bill passed in June.
But
the nutrition proposals that the House is expected to vote on Thursday,
reducing SNAP funding, are more controversial. They have the backing of
dozens of conservative lawmakers who want deeper cuts in food aid and
believe reductions cannot be made as part of a larger farm bill.
* * *
The bill would cut SNAP funding by stiffening the eligibility requirements for “able-bodied” people with no children. The Congressional Budget Office estimated this week that about 3.5 million adults would no longer be eligible for the program if the proposed changes are enacted.
The
plan also would no longer allow states to waive those federal
requirements for some able-bodied adults if the state has a high
unemployment rate. But more than 40 states — including several led by
Republican governors — want to extend their waivers in order to buoy
low-income residents with federal aid during the economic recovery.
Aides
representing lawmakers in both parties expect a narrow vote, though GOP
aides insisted that they will earn the support of most House
Republicans. Democrats suggested, however, that as many as 20 House
Republicans from the Northeast and rural states with large low-income
populations, who have previously rejected similarly dramatic cuts in
food-stamp money, might vote against the bill.
* * *
If the bill with reduced SNAP funding passes, Republican leaders are
expected to quickly launch negotiations with Senate Democrats over a
final version of the farm bill, which would once again merge food aid
with other agricultural policy. But Senate Agriculture Committee
Chairman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) rejected the GOP strategy Wednesday:
“What the House Republicans are saying is this: Get a good-paying job or
your family will just have to go hungry.”
Failure to pass a new
farm bill by Sept. 30 risks rolling back federal farm policy to a
1940s-era law that would regulate the farming industry beginning in
January.
Call your congressional office to tell them to vote "no".
UPDATE: The bill passed 217 to 210. Fifteen Republicans joined 195 Democrats in
voting against the bill. Six members did not vote; 217 votes were the
threshold for passing the measure. House GOP Votes To Slash Food Stamp Spending:
The bill will now likely be merged with the rest of the farm bill passed
by the House in July in conference with the Senate. The Senate-passed
farm bill cut food stamp spending by a far smaller amount, $4 billion
over 10 years.
There are 201 Democrats in the House, so the 6 not voting must have been Democrats.
