WEEKEND TOP NEWS LINKS:
Mixed-up in this past weeks debate about Federal funding priorities was a vote to downsize SNAP – the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Still commonly referred to as “food stamps” the program is still crucial to many, including those who work but don’t make enough to feed their families.
D. Wallbank & L. Tillman, Bloomberg News
When Andres Gonzalez’s mother lost her job two years ago, the former student at South Texas College applied for food stamps, a federal aid program for the poor.
“It gave me more time to focus on looking for work and going to school, instead of having to worry about where I’m going to get my next meal,” said Gonzalez, 24, who left the nutrition assistance program earlier this year after he found work as a warehouse supervisor in McAllen, Texas.
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives view the aid more skeptically, arguing it’s rife with waste and abuse. Legislation passed the chamber yesterday that would cut $39 billion from nutrition programs over a decade, a roughly 5 percent reduction that would end food-stamp benefits for 3.8 million Americans next year.
The vote came a day after the release of new U.S. Census Bureau data showing 46.5 million people living in poverty, close to 15 percent of the population and near a two-decade high.
During the debate, Republicans cited the example of a surfer in California who said he used food stamps to buy lobster. They also said the aid programs, which have expanded rapidly since the economic downturn, are too often viewed as a permanent government subsidy rather than short-term relief.
“The reforms made by this bill will put people on the path to self-sufficiency and independence,” said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Virginia Republican, before the vote.
The vote was close — 217 Republicans supported it, while all 195 Democrats and 15 Republicans, mostly from the Northeast, opposed it.
Opponents, who had brought in soup-kitchen leaders and a celebrity, Tom Colicchio from television’s “Top Chef,” to attack the bill, said the measure was “heartless.”
(Read more of this story Bloomberg News)
RELATED STORIES:
- House Votes To Slash $40 Billion From Food Stamp Program (NPR)
- Anti-Hunger Advocates Put Pressure on Lawmakers Over Food Stamp Bill (New York Times)
- House approves GOP plan to slash food stamp funding (Washington Post)
- With House Win, GOP Pushes Food-Stamp Cuts to the Far Right (The Daily Beast)
- Food stamps again a vivid symbol in poverty debate (USA Today)
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TEXAS HEADLINES:
- Texas, 3 other states file lawsuit against EPA (KPRC 2 News)
- Mayor Parker’s texting and driving campaign goes statewide (KIAH 39 Newsfix)
- Watson Responds to Perry’s Move to Regulate Insurance Navigators (Texas Tribune)
- Textbook Standards, Charter Schools, Graduation Requirements Keep Education Board Busy (KUT Austin)