The*Empress
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Updated: 12:02 PM EDT
Congress Seeks to Cut Food Aid for Poor
By LIBBY QUAID, AP
WASHINGTON (Oct. 6) - Democrats are fighting attempts to make cuts in food stamps and conservation programs at a time when people are coping with hurricanes and drought.
"Right now the difference between life and death for many Americans is the food stamp program," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. "We should not, we cannot, cut the very nutritional programs that are literally saving lives."
A Republican plan to cut agriculture spending by $3 billion had been scheduled for a vote Thursday in the Senate Agriculture Committee, but the panel's chairman, Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., put off the vote indefinitely late Wednesday.
OH well, I can live off Doritos chips.
Chambliss said Thursday he didn't have enough support from committee members for extending the dairy price-support program at the expense of other payments to farmers. The American Farm Bureau Federation, the largest general farm group, opposes the dairy program's extension.
"We don't think it's fair that you help one commodity at the expense of other commodities," Farm Bureau lobbyist Mary Kay Thatcher said, citing the dairy program's $1 billion cost.
The plan would extend a federal dairy price-support program, the Milk Income Loss Contract program, but reduce the amount of money dairy farmers would receive from it.
It would impose a 2.5 percent reduction in subsidies, affect all payments and marketing loan gains for producers of corn, wheat, rice, soybeans, cotton and other subsidized crops as well as dairy.
Payments to farmers would fall by $1.145 billion over five years. Still, it is much less severe than what President Bush had proposed. He sought a 5 percent reduction in payments, plus a far-reaching plan for capping payments that would cut billions more dollars from subsidies collected by large farm operations.
Chambliss intended to propose aid for farmers battered by hurricanes and drought in the coming weeks, after damage is fully assessed, spokesman Keith Williams said Wednesday.
The bill by Chambliss would cut food programs for the poor by $574 million and conservation programs and farm payments by more than $1 billion each.
The budget-cutting plan faces opposition from Democrats and others.
"This proposal is an unconscionable slap in the face at America's poor," said Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, the senior Democrat on the committee.
The $574 million cut in food stamps would come from restricting access to this benefit for certain families that, because they receive other government assistance, receive food stamps without going through the application process. The restriction would shut an estimated 300,000 people out of the program. Chambliss' spokesman said the change would apply to families that do not meet eligibility requirements and that eligible families still will receive food stamps.
Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said he and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, are pushing for Bush's payment limits, which would eliminate loopholes that let bigger growers collect unlimited payments.
Effective payment limits would cut spending enough to spare nutrition and conservation programs, said Chuck Hassebrook, director of the Lyons, Neb.-based Center for Rural Affairs.
"All they really meant was, `We're not going to cut the big guys; we're going to cut family farms and conservation,"' he said.
Congress ordered the $3 billion in cuts in a budget outline passed this year.
At the time, leading Republicans indicated they would rather target food stamps and conservation programs than simply make the deep cuts that Bush was seeking. The administration backed off its plan to cap payments in April after strong opposition from farmers. Cotton and rice growers would bear the brunt of payment limits.
Chambliss wants the cuts in farmers' payments to be distributed evenly among all commodities, his spokesman said.
Also under fire were $1.05 billion in conservation cuts that would trim programs that pay farmers to stop farming certain land or to change their practices to help the environment.
"Subsidies get $20 billion a year. Conservation gets less than $4 billion - to expect farmers who want to help the environment to shoulder as heavy a load as fat-cat cotton producers is terrible policy," said Scott Faber, spokesman for the Washington-based Environmental Defense.
The cuts in payments are not enough to aid U.S. negotiators in global trade talks being held by the World Trade Organization, said Ken Cook, president of Environmental Working Group. Developing countries are insisting that wealthy nations cut subsidies in exchange for access to their markets.
"It is a slap in the face to the poorest countries in the world," Cook said.
10-06-05 11:58 EDT
Congress Seeks to Cut Food Aid for Poor
By LIBBY QUAID, AP
WASHINGTON (Oct. 6) - Democrats are fighting attempts to make cuts in food stamps and conservation programs at a time when people are coping with hurricanes and drought.
"Right now the difference between life and death for many Americans is the food stamp program," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. "We should not, we cannot, cut the very nutritional programs that are literally saving lives."
A Republican plan to cut agriculture spending by $3 billion had been scheduled for a vote Thursday in the Senate Agriculture Committee, but the panel's chairman, Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., put off the vote indefinitely late Wednesday.
OH well, I can live off Doritos chips.Chambliss said Thursday he didn't have enough support from committee members for extending the dairy price-support program at the expense of other payments to farmers. The American Farm Bureau Federation, the largest general farm group, opposes the dairy program's extension.
"We don't think it's fair that you help one commodity at the expense of other commodities," Farm Bureau lobbyist Mary Kay Thatcher said, citing the dairy program's $1 billion cost.
The plan would extend a federal dairy price-support program, the Milk Income Loss Contract program, but reduce the amount of money dairy farmers would receive from it.
It would impose a 2.5 percent reduction in subsidies, affect all payments and marketing loan gains for producers of corn, wheat, rice, soybeans, cotton and other subsidized crops as well as dairy.
Payments to farmers would fall by $1.145 billion over five years. Still, it is much less severe than what President Bush had proposed. He sought a 5 percent reduction in payments, plus a far-reaching plan for capping payments that would cut billions more dollars from subsidies collected by large farm operations.
Chambliss intended to propose aid for farmers battered by hurricanes and drought in the coming weeks, after damage is fully assessed, spokesman Keith Williams said Wednesday.
The bill by Chambliss would cut food programs for the poor by $574 million and conservation programs and farm payments by more than $1 billion each.
The budget-cutting plan faces opposition from Democrats and others.
"This proposal is an unconscionable slap in the face at America's poor," said Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, the senior Democrat on the committee.
The $574 million cut in food stamps would come from restricting access to this benefit for certain families that, because they receive other government assistance, receive food stamps without going through the application process. The restriction would shut an estimated 300,000 people out of the program. Chambliss' spokesman said the change would apply to families that do not meet eligibility requirements and that eligible families still will receive food stamps.
Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said he and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, are pushing for Bush's payment limits, which would eliminate loopholes that let bigger growers collect unlimited payments.
Effective payment limits would cut spending enough to spare nutrition and conservation programs, said Chuck Hassebrook, director of the Lyons, Neb.-based Center for Rural Affairs.
"All they really meant was, `We're not going to cut the big guys; we're going to cut family farms and conservation,"' he said.
Congress ordered the $3 billion in cuts in a budget outline passed this year.
At the time, leading Republicans indicated they would rather target food stamps and conservation programs than simply make the deep cuts that Bush was seeking. The administration backed off its plan to cap payments in April after strong opposition from farmers. Cotton and rice growers would bear the brunt of payment limits.
Chambliss wants the cuts in farmers' payments to be distributed evenly among all commodities, his spokesman said.
Also under fire were $1.05 billion in conservation cuts that would trim programs that pay farmers to stop farming certain land or to change their practices to help the environment.
"Subsidies get $20 billion a year. Conservation gets less than $4 billion - to expect farmers who want to help the environment to shoulder as heavy a load as fat-cat cotton producers is terrible policy," said Scott Faber, spokesman for the Washington-based Environmental Defense.
The cuts in payments are not enough to aid U.S. negotiators in global trade talks being held by the World Trade Organization, said Ken Cook, president of Environmental Working Group. Developing countries are insisting that wealthy nations cut subsidies in exchange for access to their markets.
"It is a slap in the face to the poorest countries in the world," Cook said.
10-06-05 11:58 EDT
I've seen that also myself, Even my sister's sister in law brought too much junk foods with her food card, I've seen one of her son eating a whole bag of chips! 