Just Harvest Public Policy Advocate Rochelle Jackson (center right) and other PA hunger advocates meet with Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) (center) to urge him to stay strong in the upcoming Congressional fight to protect food stamps
(Mar. 3, 2015).
Every budget is an expression of priorities – what matters and what doesn’t, what gets funded and what won’t.
Following the 2014 election Republicans are now the majority in our federal legislature, but the budget they’re proposing will only benefit a slim minority of Americans.
This week, the U.S. House took its first official steps to advance this budget, which over the next 10 years would cut $5.5 trillion from education, transportation, healthcare, and programs that are critical lifelines for the poor and hungry, while increasing military funding. If passed, this budget would be disastrous for low- and middle-income Pennsylvanians.
What the Republican House committee members approved in the budget, which was later approved in a full House vote:
- Cutting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)/food stamps eligibility and benefits in the amount of $125 billion, or by 15%. Under these cuts, SNAP participants would lose 220 meals a year or 10 weeks’ worth of food.
- Block granting SNAP and Medicaid, which would allow states to further divert funds from these programs – an idea that’s been rejected for two decades.
- Cutting Medicaid to the tune of $913 billion.
- Repealing the Affordable Care Act which has insured 16.4 million Americans.
- Hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to other entitlement programs like WIC and school meal, summer, after-school, and child care center food programs, reducing low-income children’s access to the one to two free meals a day they receive.
- $1.1 trillion in further unspecified cuts to mandatory spending, which includes such programs as food stamps, disability payments for veterans, Pell grants for students, and the Earned Income Tax Credit.
- Cutting taxes for millionaires while raising taxes on 26 million working families and students.
What the Republican House committee members defeated:
- A Democrat-supported budget amendment that would have cut U.S. poverty in half in 10 years, as well as other Democratic amendments designed to protect U.S. safety net programs and invest in working families.
The U.S. Senate has now approved a similar budget. The next step will be for the House and Senate to try to reconcile their two budget versions by April 15.
We need to make Congress hear that this budget does NOT express the priorities of a majority of Americans.
It’s time to #StopTheCuts.
What You Can Do
The budget process has only just begun. Much work lies ahead. But we can take action now to join hunger advocates and legislators to block a key part of this budget and protect the nation’s cornerstone social safety net programs, including food stamps.
Sign this petition from Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) and raise your voice against hunger.
Sign this petition too via the National Priorities Project. Support the Congressional Progressive Caucus in pushing for a People’s Budget.
We encourage you to also tweet at your Senators and Reps with personal stories about why they should #StopTheCuts.
Tweet to Sen. Patrick Toomey
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