food stamps

Leaders of the Republican-controlled House Budget Committee proposed steep cuts in federal spending in order to balance the budget in 10 years.

The Federal Register is to publish a proposed rule today that would bar the use of federal funds to encourage people to apply for food stamps.

Four years ago, the USDA launched a pilot program that allowed food-stamp recipients to order groceries via the Internet and then pay upon delivery with their EBT cards. "Now, the USDA is embarking on a new phase of modernization, a pilot program dictated by the 2014 farm bill that will allow some websites to accept EBT cards online," says Civil Eats.

USDA data show that 32 percent of households receiving food stamps "still have to visit a food pantry to keep themselves fed," says the NPR blog The Salt.

In a pilot project that includes urbanized Maryland and heavily rural Arkansas, 10 states will experiment with ways to improve employment and training programs for food-stamp recipients.

Retailers who want to be part of the food-stamp program would be required to offer a wider array of foods under a USDA proposal intended to give low-income Americans access to healthier food choices.

The think tank Center for Budget and Policy Priorities says "more than 500,000 and as many as 1 million of the nation's poorest people" will lose food stamp benefits during 2016 "due to the return in many areas of a three-month limit on benefits for unemployed adults aged 18-49 who aren't disabled or raising minor children."

The United States can show its leadership in the world and reap benefits for itself through cooperative action, President Obama said in his final State of the Union speech. During the hour-long address, he asked Congress to approve the Trans-Pacific free-trade agreement and to end the half-century trade embargo on Cuba.

At least 500,000 people will lose food stamp benefits this year "due to the return in many areas of a three-month limit" for so-called ABADs, able-bodied adults without dependents, says the think tank Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.

Some 46 million people, roughly one out of seven Americans, use food stamps each month to help put food on the table, says the White House. A report by the Council of Economic Advisors says, "New research ... shows benefit levels are often inadequate to sustain families through the end of the month.

Maine is seeking permission from the USDA to bar the purchase and soda and candy with food stamps, even though nine other states have had such requests turned down, says the Portland Press Herald.

The nonprofit Seattle Jobs Initiative will receive a $3.6 million grant to set up and operate a Center of Excellence to help states hone the employment and training programs offered through the food stamp program, the USDA announced. The center is part of an initiative in the 2014 farm law to help poor people find jobs and move up the employment ladder.

The Republican nominee for Senate in Arkansas, Rep Tom Cotton, says in a campaign advertisement that he voted against the farm bill because it had "turned into a food stamp bill with billions (of dollars) more in spending," says the Associated Press. Cotton was the only Arkansas lawmaker to vote against the $500 billion, five-year farm bill. Democratic Sen Mark Pryor, chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture, has criticized Cotton for the vote.

One in six of the older Americans targeted by an expansion of SNAP work requirements in the debt ceiling bill negotiated by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Biden lives in California, said the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities on Wednesday.