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Republicans Finalize Ending Nutrition Assistance For 700,000 Americans
Happy Holidays everyone.... Republican style:
The Trump administration Wednesday [12/4/19] formalized work requirements for recipients of food stamps, a move that will cause hundreds of thousands of people to lose access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP.
Under current rules... required to work at least 20 hours a week....to qualify for food stamps, but states have been able to create waivers for areas that face high unemployment. The new rule would limit states from waiving those standards....
SNAP, known for decades as "food stamps," is for families to put food on the table. Food so children don’t have to go to bed hungry. SNAP gives on average just $1.40 per meal. It lifts 8 million out of poverty. And Republicans are eviscerating it. Disgusting. No one should go hungry.
SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, is the nation's most important anti-hunger program. In a typical month in 2017, SNAP helped more than 40 million low-income Americans afford a nutritionally adequate diet. SNAP provides important nutritional support for low-wage working families, low-income seniors, and people with disabilities living on fixed incomes. Close to 70 percent of SNAP participants are in families with children; nearly a third are in households with seniors or people with disabilities. After unemployment insurance, it is the most responsive federal program providing additional assistance during economic downturns.
While spending BILLIONS to bail out farmers for failed policies, Trump and Republicans are trying to save a mere $5 billion by making 700,000 more people go hungry.
SNAP is intended to address hunger and not compel people to work. Many also noted that those affected are impoverished, tend to live in rural areas, often face mental health issues and disabilities. Black and Hispanic households, women and LGBTQ people would be disproportionately affected by the change.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, said this rule would do little to help anyone find work. All the rule change does is strip people from accessing the benefit, she said.
It's one of those incredibly rare things that Congress worked together to keep funding for so Trump's administration and the USDA under Republican control by rain-dancing Sonny Perdue, have found a way around them.
....an attempt to add work requirements to SNAP had failed in Congress when they had considered the Farm Bill last year. The House rejected it in a bipartisan vote of 330-83, and the Senate voted down a similar amendment 68-30.
"There’s a reason Republicans and Democrats overwhelmingly rejected this callous proposal in the Farm Bill and instead focused on bipartisan job training opportunities that actually help families find good paying jobs,” she said.
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