FRAC Statement: Senate Moves Forward on $11.9 Billion Cut in SNAP Benefits; Legislation Needs to Be Fixed Before Passage
Food Research and Action Center News Release Aug 4, 2010
Today, the Senate voted for cloture on a bill which reduces SNAP (food stamps) benefits to generate $11.9 billion to pay for items added to the Federal Aviation Administration Bill, including aid to states and funding for teachers' salaries and FMAP (Medicaid). While FRAC supports these important legislative priorities, it is unacceptable to pay for any priority by cutting benefits for the hungriest people in the country.
If this bill is enacted, it will have the dubious distinction of being the first ever to lower SNAP benefits from one period to the following period. For the first time ever, SNAP recipients will see their monthly benefits shrink. A family of four can expect their benefits to drop about $59 a month starting in April 2014. ($59 x 12 = $708/yr)
Congress still has a chance to make this right. (Not anymore. The House on Aug 11 approved it unaltered 247-161.) More than 800 national, state, and local organizations have joined together to urge Congress to reject cuts to the SNAP program to fund other priorities – regardless of the merits of the programs being funded. FRAC urges leaders in Congress to find a way to move legislation without making hungry people hungrier and taking it from those that have the least.
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