Monterey, CA Food Stamp Funding Will Be Battled In The House And The Senate
by Richard Kuehn on 07/09/12
View From A Non-Profit Serving Carmel, Carmel Valley, Carmel-by-the-Sea, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside And Soledad California
The Republican-led House of Representatives Agriculture Committee has released a draft of a bill that would cut spending by $3.5 billion per year, about half of that coming from food stamp funding. It's not likely to have much traction in the Democratic-led Senate, which passed a bill last month that cut only about one quarter of that amount from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, more commonly known as food stamps. Food stamps make up about 80% of the $100 billion a year which is spent under the farm bill so it's no surprise that they are under attack. But the amount which the House proposes cutting is huge and will have a far reaching impact on the poor if it goes through. About 1 out of 7 Americans relies on food stamps after the recent brutal recession. "Underfunding this critically important program when families temporarily rely on it to put food on the table in a tough economy is irresponsible," Representative Rosa DeLauro (Democrat, Connecticut) told a reporter. I agree. I would much rather have the Department of Agriculture police the program better, which could save the program a lot of money. Many billions of dollars have been saved by cracking down on Medicare fraud, for instance. There have been numerous press reports about stores that jack up prices because they know that consumers are paying with food stamps. Other reports have talked about people reporting cards lost, selling them on ebay or craigslist and then having them reissued. Still other reports have surfaced that, now that the program has gone electronic and is funded to people via their ATM cards, recipients are using the ATM cards in bars and casinos instead of at the grocery store. The program needs to stick to its mandate. Let's focus on getting people food on the table that need it.
