June 13, 2012

Dear Colleague,

As you may know, the U.S. Senate is currently debating their version of the Farm Bill and the House Agriculture Committee may mark up a different version of the Farm Bill before the July 4^th recess. The Senate bill cuts the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps, by $4.5 billion and the House version may cut even more. I write to urge you to stand with me in opposing any cuts to this important safety-net program. Some have said that cuts to SNAP will not reduce the benefits low-income families rely on to feed themselves, but this is simply not the case. The truth is that SNAP is the most effective and efficient federal program. Senator Gillibrand is currently leading the effort in the Senate to eliminate the SNAP cuts in the Senate Farm Bill and I encourage you to read the editorial in today's New York Times endorsing her amendment restoring these cuts. I also ask that you stand with me in opposing any cuts to SNAP in the House version of the Farm Bill.

Sincerely,

James. P. McGovern
Member of Congress

Food Stamps and the Farm Bill

Published: June 12, 2012

The version of the farm bill that emerged from the Senate Agriculture Committee contains $4.5 billion in cuts to the food stamps program over 10 years.

That amount is a small fraction of the nation's spending on food stamps, currently nearly $80 billion a year, but would, nevertheless, be devastating for nearly half-a-million households that would have their benefits sliced by an average of $90 per month, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Such a cutback in food benefits for struggling families and children is unconscionable in a bill containing plenty of unnecessary giveaways for corporate farming interests. With the Senate poised to take up the bill, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat of New York, is waging a tough fight to restore the food-stamp cut. She has offered an amendment that would make a humane and sensible change — lowering the subsidies to highly profitable crop insurance companies to avoid any trims in the food-stamp program.

It is not yet clear which of the hundreds of pending farm bill amendments will receive a vote. Senator Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, should make sure that the Gillibrand amendment gets one, and then he must rally Senate Democrats to pass it.

Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee have already voted to cut food stamps by $33 billion over the next decade. A vote for Senator Gillibrand's proposal would send an important message about priorities. For the Democratic-led Senate to allow any reduction to food stamps is no way to open negotiations with the House.