WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) late last week issued the following statement in response to a bill under consideration in the U.S. House that would cut food assistance by $40 billion, and kick nearly four million people off of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the next year, including children, seniors, veterans, and disabled Americans. Harkin is a former Chairman and now senior member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
“Far from joining with the U.S. Senate to pass a bipartisan bill that will provide a pathway to a five year farm bill, the House is heading in the opposite direction,” said Harkin. “The bill under consideration today would not only devastate millions of Americans by eliminating or slashing their food assistance, it will also hurt American farmers, rural communities, and consumers by making it harder to pass a comprehensive long-term food and agriculture bill. This measure is unconscionable. It will go nowhere in the U.S. Senate. And it should be soundly rejected by the U.S. House.”
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the House food bill would:
– Cut nearly $40 billion from food assistance programs over a ten year period;
– Deny food assistance to 3.8 million people from SNAP in 2014;
– Reduce food assistance by $90 each month to 850,000 households.
Though not yet calculated by the Congressional Budget Office, the House bill is also certain to deny schools meals to hundreds of thousands of children who receive free school meals as a result of their participation in the SNAP program.
Click here to listen to Senator Harkin’s comments as he addressed journalists lat last week.
