Congress must reject any and all funding cuts to essential nutrition programs
If the Farm Bill to be considered in the House Committee on Agriculture on May 23 becomes law, it will mean a cut of nearly $30 billion in future SNAP benefits over a decade.
Such cuts are unconscionable. For many children, they will make learning more difficult and lead to negative health outcomes. They will force families and older adults to choose between putting food on the table and paying for other expenses such as rent, utility bills, or prescription drugs. They will also harm our economy, removing the stimulative benefits of SNAP and even hurting farmers and ranchers along the way.
SNAP is the most effective anti-hunger program in the U.S. It reduces hunger by 30% and provides nutritious meals to one-quarter of America’s children.
The House bill makes these cuts by limiting the USDA’s ability to update the Thrifty Food Plan, which determines SNAP benefit levels, to reflect the real costs of a nutritious diet, based on science, along with reflecting food prices that remain stubbornly high. This will make it tougher for families experiencing food insecurity as well as the food banks that aid them. These would be the largest cuts to SNAP benefits in almost 30 years if enacted. In addition, these changes will trigger more than $500 million in cuts to Summer EBT, which provides grocery benefits to children in low-income families during the summer when schools are closed, along with $100 million in cuts to The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), which provides food for food banks and food pantries to distribute to individuals and families.
The House bill also would allow states to let private corporations take over determining eligibility for SNAP. Where this has been tried, replacing merit-based staff resulted in corporate skimping on careful help to people applying for or renewing benefits in order to maximize profits. It would also reverse previously enacted steps to reduce agriculture-caused greenhouse gas emissions.
During this time when many families grapple with the cost of housing and food, Congress must do everything in its power to provide relief to those who need it most.
Click “Start Writing” to send a message to Congress urging them to reject any and all cuts to nutrition programs in the FY2025 Farm Bill.
The post-pandemic planning edition. The rapid decrease in the number of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. has prompted speculation that maybe, possibly, perhaps, the end of the pandemic is in sight. We can’t say for sure – we’ve been down that road before. But we can ask ourselves a fundamental question. When the pandemic recedes, do we want to go back to the pre-pandemic days? Or do we want to build something better, something lasting, something that boldly addresses the weaknesses and systemic inequities that predated COVID-19?
Thanks to President Biden, about 67,000 federal workers have now received a guaranteed $15 per hour minimum wage. And within this year, another 300,000 employees of federal contractors — who fill support positions for the government but are not federal workers — will join them. The move, which involved Biden filling a 2020 campaign pledge via executive order, affects workers in all U.S. states and territories. It covers a multitude of occupations, including wildland firefighters, plant protection technicians, and custodial workers.
Two House members have written a letter to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, asking the agency to publicly release figures detailing how many Americans suffer from “long COVID,” including how many women and people of color are affected. Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Don Beyer (D-VA) said it is “critical” for Congress and the American public to have access to data relating to long COVID “in order to inform policymaking and protect the public’s health.”
If you are looking for even more evidence that extending the expanded Child Tax Credit is good public policy, consider this: a breakthrough new study suggests that such payments can make babies smarter. The study, released this week by the National Academy of Sciences, did not involve the CTC payments. However, it did examine low-income families who received just over $300 in monthly cash assistance during the first year of their children’s lives. It found that infants in families receiving the payments displayed more high-frequency brain waves when they reached 12 months of age.
Biden’s first year edition. As President Biden marks his first year in office, the pandemic continues to exert its toll on the nation’s health care system and economy and presents a significant challenge that the Biden Administration has worked to address since Inauguration Day. At the same time, as we assess the President’s first year, we can see there is much to celebrate. 2021 witnessed unprecedented growth and recovery – and it did not happen by accident. The country experienced record job gains and a historic drop in unemployment.
On January 15, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was leaving a planning meeting for the Poor People’s Campaign when he was called back into the room. It was his birthday — his last, it would turn out. The staff of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference would usually give King a new suit, but this year they wanted to make him laugh. Xernona Clayton teased, “We know how fond you are of our president Lyndon Johnson,” which got a laugh. Then she pulled out a metal cup engraved: “We are cooperating with Lyndon’s War on Poverty. Drop coins and bills in cup.”
For the past six months, more than 61 million children in roughly 36 million families across the U.S. have received a monthly payment of $250 or $300 per child. Today, some parents may be surprised – in a very bad way – to learn that the monthly payments have ended. Tax credits that would have landed in families’ bank accounts beginning Friday, January 14 won’t happen because the Senate could not agree to extend them.
Child care is one of the biggest expenses many families face — in much of the country, it can run higher than college tuition. Could a national child care program ease that burden? If the Build Back Better bill can be rescued, our country may get another opportunity to make a historic investment in our future.
The omnipotent omicron edition. Omicron is exploding and testing is falling woefully short. The U.S. is now averaging 610,989 cases a day – a record during the pandemic – and a 227 percent increase from two weeks ago. Hospitalizations in some areas are rising sharply. When one digs deeply into the omicron numbers, there is both bad and good news to be mined.
Omicron is surging and the Build Back Better Act is stalled. Yet there is some really good news to report this holiday season: a record 13.6 million Americans have signed up for individual coverage under the Affordable Care Act, and that number is only going to increase over the next three weeks.
How wonderful it would be if this could be a letter of pure celebration – that we as a nation had progressed from urgently needed protections to investments to build our future. We are not there yet. But your unflagging commitment will get us there. We have to get there because so many of our neighbors are behind in their rent, struggling with low pay, still threatened by the pandemic, still fearful of losing family members to deportation or illness.
I work hard to make ends meet for my family. But as an educator in West Virginia, that’s hard sometimes — especially with child care to pay for. Fortunately, the expanded Child Tax Credit that Democrats passed this spring has been a lifeline. Those monthly payments mean that my child has food, a roof, electricity, and heat. It means I have less stress and can be a better mother. And it means I can stay employed because I can afford child care. Unfortunately, unless Congress passes the Build Back Better Act now, those payments will expire before the year is out.
