As Republicans push a farm bill that could cut more than $20 billion from nutrition assistance programs supporting 46 million low-income Americans, a coalition of Democratic lawmakers, led by California Rep. Barbara Lee, is in the midst of a separate campaign to put themselves in the shoes of the nation’s poor.
It’s being called the SNAP Challenge, named after the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — commonly known as food stamps — that’s due for cutbacks in a new version of the farm bill.
Considering the average food stamp beneficiary receives $30 a week — $1.50 a meal — to cover groceries, the coalition of lawmakers agreed to do the same for the sake of solidarity.
“The more than $20 billion in proposed cuts to SNAP are unconscionable and unacceptable,” Lee said in a statement. “When I was a young, single mother, I was on public assistance, and I would not be where I am today if it weren’t for the vital lifeline that the American people extended to me.”
While a version of the bill calling for $4 billion in cuts to food stamp programs passed the Senate, the House is considering a bill that would cut $20.5 billion from the same program.
Highlighting those on the chopping block
The goal of the lawmakers taking on the SNAP Challenge is to empathize with the human element behind a bill that, to many of their colleagues, resembles a puzzle piece in the nation’s effort to draw down debt.
“Far too many Americans continue to struggle just to feed themselves and their families,” Missouri Congressman Sander Levin, said in a statement. “And yet House Republicans have proposed $20 billion in cuts to food stamps, which help the neediest among us. Participating in this challenge will provide me some insight into the struggle so many Americans face and I hope will highlight why we should not cut this program.”
The challenge involves 26 congressional leaders, some of whom are chronicling their efforts through social media as a tool to not only highlight the plight of America’s poor, but also to draw attention to the effort to slash SNAP funding.
In a blog post, Lee detailed what it’s been like to manage the limited budget. According to her assessment, living off the meager allowance isn’t glamorous, and it’s that point she’s aiming to hit home to her Republican opponents.
“This morning, I went shopping for the week on the SNAP budget,” she wrote in the post. “Getting your budget down to $4.50 a day is complicated. You need to try to make sure you have enough protein, limit your sodium, and find good vegetables. If you have special dietary needs, like diabetes or an allergy, there’s even more to think about.”
With hashtag #SNAPchallenge trending and conversations abuzz on social media sites like Twitter, the challenge is gaining momentum among average Americans as well as congressional leaders.
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Cal.) tweeted a photo Monday of five days’ worth of food purchased under the challenge’s guideline, with a care package including bread, eggs, peanut butter, brown rice and pasta, among other items.
New York-based Westchester Children’s Association sent out a tweet Monday, claiming its staff were taking part in the challenge in solidarity of the children who would be cut from SNAP programs.
This isn’t the first time a campaign like this has been launched. In the winter of 2012, a similar movement was created by Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker — one that set off a firestorm of controversy. While Booker publicly declared he was taking on the challenge to raise awareness and understanding of food insecurity issues, he was blasted by conservative commentators.
Andrea Tantaros, a Fox News pundit, mockingly declared that the “food stamp diet” would leave her looking great, saying, “I should try it because, do you know how fabulous I’d look. I’d be so skinny. I mean, the camera adds 10 pounds.”
Senate calls for cuts
Depending on the outcome of the farm bill debate in Congress, the SNAP Challenge could get even tougher next year.
Last week, a bill that slashes $24 billion from the farm bill — including $4.1 billion in cuts to SNAP — easily made its way through the Senate by a vote of 66-27.
“The Senate today voted to support 16 million American jobs, to save taxpayers billions and to implement the most significant reforms to agriculture programs in decades,” Michigan Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow, chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee said following the passage of the bill, according to a New York Times report.
The Food Research and Action Center has come out swinging against the Senate bill, claiming it is putting the nation’s most vulnerable people at risk.
In particular, it’s being criticized for hampering states’ abilities to operate “Heat and Eat” programs, which coordinate SNAP with energy assistance programs in 15 states.
According to the Food Research and Action Center, elimination of the Heat and Eat program would harm the nation’s elderly and disabled.
“These are low-income persons who cannot survive on the minimum $16 SNAP benefit per month, which may be the amount they are left with if states lose this option. In Massachusetts, elimination of ‘Heat and Eat’ could trigger a $50 or $75 reduction in SNAP benefits for many of the state’s seniors and residents living with disabilities,” the organization states in a fact sheet.
House’s draconian bill
While the Senate bill received criticism for its cuts to food assistance programs, it doesn’t compare to the proposed bill in the House, which seeks to slash the SNAP program by up to $20.5 billion over the course of 10 years.
The move would impact 1.7 million people who would lose $90 in SNAP funding per month, according to the Food Research and Action Center.
In addition, 210,000 low-income children would be cut from programs that provide free school meals.
A change to the qualification formula for the SNAP program proposed in the House bill would kick 1.8 million off the program altogether, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
The House bill also would change the eligibility formula — 130 percent of the poverty line — to apply to those who qualify based on gross income. Currently, 40 states have opted to take part in the “expanded eligibility formula program,” made possible through the 1996 welfare law.
“The federal SNAP gross income limit of 130 percent of the poverty line excludes some low-income working families whose disposable income is below the poverty line, often because they must incur sizeable child care costs in order to work,” Dottie Rosenbaum and Stacy Dean of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities wrote.
The proposed cuts, which would go into effect Nov. 1, come at the same time the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act is set to expire, cutting funding by an additional $25 a month for a family of four, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
The House version of the bill passed through committee in May by a vote of 36-10.
House Speaker John Boehner said his chamber would take on the bill this month, vowing to support the House version of the bill that seeks $20.5 billion in cuts.
“I’m going to vote for the farm bill to make sure that the good work of the Agricultural Committee and whatever the floor might do to improve this bill gets to a conference so we can get the kind of changes that people want in our nutrition programs and in our farm programs,” Boehner said, according to the New York Times blog, The Caucus.
Here’s the full list of the congresspeople participating in the SNAP challenge:
Rep. John Carney (D-Del.) | Rep. Matthew Cartwright (D-Penn.) |
Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) | Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) |
Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) | Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) |
Rep. Theodore Deutch (D-Fla.) | Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) |
Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.) | Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) |
Rep. Eleanor Holmes-Norton (D-D.C.) | Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) |
Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) | Rep. Daniel Kildee (D-Mich.) |
Rep. Ann Kuster (D-N.H.) | Rep. James Langevin (D-R.I.) |
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) | Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.) |
Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) | Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) |
Rep. Richard Nolan (D-Minn.) | Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Tex.) |
Rep. Donald Payne, Jr. (D-N.J.) | Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) |
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) | Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Tex.) |
Rep. Melvin Watt (D-N.C.) |