Making people go hungry is a top priority for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
Making people go hungry is a top priority for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
Hey, remember how House Republicans are looking to cut $40 billion in food stamps over the next 10 years,
kicking millions out of the program and forcing hundreds of thousands into food insecurity? While the rest of the country is talking about Syria, House Republicans are planning to hold a vote on those cuts
next week, without all the usual debate:
Next week the House will vote on legislation to cut SNAP by roughly 5 percent. The bill is bypassing the House Agriculture Committee, which oversees food stamps, because it is a priority of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.).
"There's not been a single hearing on food stamps at all. Not one," said [Democratic Rep. Jim] McGovern, one of the panel's most outspoken opponents of cutting nutrition assistance. (The previous Congress, which wrapped up last year, held several hearings on nutrition legislation, though McGovern notes that the Agriculture Committee's membership has since changed.) "I hope through all this Syria stuff, that we're able to shed a bit of light on this, because I think most Americans, if they realize what's going on, would be outraged."
The House cuts won't become law, since the Senate won't pass them and President Obama won't sign them. But Republicans are sure to use them to try to get the Senate to pass deeper cuts than the $4 billion over 10 years it already voted on—an unnecessary cut to an effective, efficient program—making one thing absolutely clear: Republicans want poor Americans, including many who work, to go hungry.
Please sign our petition telling the House and Senate to put low-income families ahead of corporate welfare and to oppose all cuts to food stamps.
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