newstim kaine joins senate colleagues opposing food stamp cuts
Local

Tim Kaine joins Senate colleagues in opposing food stamp cuts

Contributors

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine joined 38 Senate colleagues Monday urging congressional budget conferees to fight against cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

kaine new2The senators also urged the negotiators to reject eligibility changes along the lines of the House bill’s $40 billion in SNAP cuts that would prevent millions of children, seniors, and families facing a constant struggle against hunger from accessing nutritious food and hundreds of thousands of low-income children from accessing free school meals.

The 2013 farm bill conference committee members are working on a compromise between the two different pieces of legislation passed by the Senate and House earlier this year. In June, Kaine voted in support of the Senate farm bill, which saved $4.5 billion by curbing several misuses of the SNAP program.

“While we support efforts to improve the integrity of the SNAP program, we encourage conferees to reject all SNAP eligibility changes designed to erect new barriers to participation, preventing millions of seniors, children and families from accessing food assistance,” the senators wrote in their letter. “The eligibility changes also will mean an additional 280,000 children would lose free school meals because children in SNAP households are automatically eligible for school meals. Changes would also increase administrative costs by requiring states to re-determine eligibility for SNAP, even if a household was deemed eligible for other state and/or federal assistance programs… SNAP is a safety net program in the truest sense of the world; there is no other more fundamental human need than food. Please consider the needs of these struggling families, children, and senior citizens as you negotiate the final farm bill and the future of the SNAP program.”

Contributors

Contributors

Have a story idea or a news tip? Email editor Chris Graham at [email protected]. Subscribe to AFP podcasts on Apple PodcastsSpotifyPandora and YouTube.

Latest News

starbucks
U.S./World

It’s more than tall, grande or venti: The fight to unionize Starbucks matters to us all

constitution
U.S./World

Rule by decree: The emergency state’s plot to override the Constitution

Power-hungry and lawless, the government has weaponized one national crisis after another in order to expand its powers and justify all manner of government tyranny in the so-called name of national security.

uva baseball ncaa
Sports

Lynchburg tops Johns Hopkins, 5-2, in Game 1 of D3 championship series

Zach Potts tossed his third career complete game, keying Lynchburg to a 5-2 win over Johns Hopkins in Game 1 of the D3 national championship series in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Wednesday.

police investigation
Virginia

Pedestrian struck, killed on Route 11 in Shenandoah County; driver charged

baseball richmond flying squirrels
Sports

Richmond Flying Squirrels get five scoreless from Carson Whisenhunt in 6-1 win

baseball
Sports

Fredericksburg Nationals, buoyed by late homer, defeat Charleston, 2-1

U.S./World

‘Widening freedom, not deepening discrimination’: U.S. military celebrates Pride Month