food stamps
GOP work rules would end or reduce SNAP for 1 million households
The work requirements for SNAP recipients proposed by House Republicans "would cause more than a million low-income households with about 2 million people — particularly low-income working families with children —- to lose their benefits altogether or have them reduced," said Robert Greenstein, the head of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. "We really believe they need to go back to the drawing board," saying the package is too poorly designed to be salvaged by amendment.
Conaway’s ‘springboard out of poverty’ is a trap door, say anti-hunger groups
House Republicans said on Thursday that they would expand work requirements to cover 6 million SNAP recipients and were willing to go it alone to pass the first openly partisan farm bill in living memory.
GOP plan: To get SNAP benefits, get training or get to work
Michael Conaway, the Republican chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, proposed a dramatic change in SNAP today that would significantly tighten eligibility rules for the program.
Conaway package: $20 billion in SNAP cuts, more work required for benefits
As many as 5 million people will have to work longer hours each week to avoid a 90-day limit on food stamp benefits under revisions proposed by the Republican chairman of the House Agriculture Committee but uniformly opposed by its Democratic members.
Conaway: I’ll pass a farm bill without Democratic help
At an impasse with Democrats over his plans for large cuts in the food stamp program, House Agriculture Committee chairman Michael Conaway says he will write — and pass — a farm bill without them.
Roberts: Pass a bipartisan farm bill before summer or risk extension of 2014 law
The leaders of the Senate Agriculture Committee have ruled out major changes in the food stamp program, effectively rejecting big cuts to the program before House Agriculture chairman Michael Conaway can write them into his committee’s version of the farm bill. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Local food advocates prepare to defend SNAP
Defending the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program was the top priority of attendees at a convening yesterday of 63 sustainable agriculture and food access organizations in Washington, D.C. The meeting was to prepare members of the Good Food for All coalition to lobby Congress on the 2018 farm bill.
Food stamp impasse delays House work on farm bill until mid-April
House Agriculture chairman Michael Conaway has shelved plans for committee approval of the new farm bill next week in the face of Democratic opposition to his proposed cuts in the $70-billion-a-year food stamp program.
Top SNAP counties are rural, analysis finds
Of the 150 counties with the highest percentage of households participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, 136 are rural, according to a new analysis from the Union of Concerned Scientists.
House Ag panel leaders try to bridge a food stamp chasm
The chairman of the House Agriculture Committee is sticking to his goal of gaining committee approval of the new farm bill by the end of this month — while also winning bipartisan support for it.
Will Mike Conaway out-do Trump on work requirements for food stamps?
Along with the much-criticized Harvest Box of nonperishable food for low-income Americans, President Trump proposed in his budget more stringent limits on food stamps for people who work less than 20 hours a week. House Agriculture chairman Michael Conaway may go beyond Trump in his proposals to restrict eligibility and to channel millions of food-stamp recipients into workfare and job-training programs.
Roberts aims for farm bill mark-up in April
The Senate Agriculture Committee will draft its version of the 2018 farm bill in April if chairman Pat Roberts’ plans hold up. Roberts discussed the timeline for the bill, but not its contents, at a child nutrition luncheon.
Economists pan Trump’s Harvest Box plan
A survey of economists by the University of Chicago business school found overwhelming disapproval of the Trump administration’s Harvest Box proposal, said the Los Angeles Times.
Wisconsin toughens its time limit for food stamp recipients
According to Gov. Scott Walker, “Wisconsin continues to lead the way on welfare reform,” including legislation that requires more of its residents to work more hours per week, or spend more time in job training, to receive food stamps for more than 90 days.
The ‘Commod Bod’ and USDA’s box-o-food program
There are federal predecessors to the Trump administration's "Harvest Box" proposal, to provide half of food-stamp benefits in the form of a box of processed and packaged foods, says the NPR blog The Salt. "Among those horrified at the thought: American Indians who recognized this as the same type of federal food assistance that tribes have received for decades, with devastating implications for health."
USDA wants ideas about how to better enforce 90-day limit on food stamps
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has long spoken out against the “permanent lifestyle” of able-bodied adults who receive food stamps. Now the USDA is asking how it can more stringently enforce its 90-day limit on benefits to those who work fewer than 20 hours a week.
Perdue doubles down on support for SNAP Harvest Box program
At the annual USDA Ag Outlook Forum, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue doubled down on his support for the recently proposed “Harvest Box” food stamp program. Perdue provided some elaboration on his vision for the program but offered little evidence of growing support. (No paywall)
Harvest Box may be a Pandora’s box of logistical troubles
The Trump administration proposal to replace half of food stamp benefits with a monthly box of food for program participants “would put families’ basic food security at risk,” says the think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.