Americans face $8bn food stamp cuts

US lawmakers are considering a compromise five-year farm bill that would cut the food stamp program by $8 billion over the next 10 years.

Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) told Reuters on Thursday that changing eligibility rules and disqualifying up to 4 million Americans who depend on food stamps would also help the US government save $40 billion over a decade.
As part of the new US farm bill, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives proposed to cut nearly $40 billion from nutrition programs, the largest cuts in a generation. However, the Democratic-controlled Senate voted to reduce food-stamp funding by $4.5 billion.
Food stamp benefits are the most politically contentious component of the first US farm bill since 2008.
œFrom everything I’ve seen, we are now within a few items of having this agreed to,” said Harkin who is a member of the select committee responsible for reconciling the bills passed by the two chambers of the US Congress.

Activists want to know whether the select committee has agreed to change eligibility rules in exchange for the relatively small cuts.
Last year, US lawmakers failed to pass a new farm bill and approved a one-year extension of the 2008 bill which expired in September.
If lawmakers on Capitol Hill fail to bring a new bill to the floor in January, Scott Faber of the Environmental Working Group said, Americans will œbe looking at a two-year extension” of the now-expired 2008 law.
The Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program provides food stamps for nearly 48 million Americans.
ISH/ISH
With permission
Source: Press TV