Washington and food

What’s does Washington have to do with people’s ability to have enough to eat?

Plenty!  For example:

First, the Senate Agriculture Appropriations bill is scheduled to be brought up on the Senate floor late today, with the vote likely to occur mid-week. Agriculture appropriations includes a variety of food and hunger programs and the House version of the Agriculture Appropriations bill was very damaging to The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), both of which provide nutritious food to low-income people.  The Senate version was significantly better.  If the bill passes the Senate, the bill will likely need to go through conference negotiations to iron out the differences between the two versions.  We will be advocating for the Senate version's language when it comes to nutrition programs.

Last Friday was the deadline for standing committees to make recommendations to the Super Committee about deficit reduction.  It appears that House and Senate Agriculture Committee leadership have negotiated an agreement with the Super Committee that would cut agriculture programs by $23 billion over 10 years.  While the details have not yet been finalized and much is still unconfirmed, we hear that cuts to nutrition programs could be somewhere around $5 billion.  It is rumored that cuts are even higher than that, and food banks in Michigan, Kansas, Minnesota, and Oklahoma are continuing to weigh in even at this late hour in negotiations.  Our understanding is that the Ag Committees will send a letter to the Super Committee today with the overall number, but then work to finalize legislative language to provide to the Super Committee in early November. 

All of us struggling to provide food for our low-income neighbors continue to advocate for no cuts to nutrition. Despite the fact that cuts by the Agriculture Committee now seem to be concrete, Congressional Democrats have not conceded cuts to low-income safety net programs, and there is still ample opportunity to influence the Super Committee. While you can count on me and other advocates to weigh in on these issues, grassroots actions will also make a difference.  Please call or write your Congressman and Senators and tell them this is not the time to cut programs that help people have enough to eat.