"As in the rest of the nation, I want to emphasize that SNAP is the biggest and most efficient tool we have for fighting hunger," Celia Cole, the CEO of Feeding Texas, the state association for 21 food banks, said at a Texas field hearing. Anti-hunger organizations and farm groups want to avoid a similar cliffhanger in a Congress where Democrats control the Senate and Republicans the House.Īdvocates defend the program as an effective tool against hunger and poverty, while agriculture groups stress the need for a farm bill with SNAP proposals acceptable to a majority in each chamber. The House squeaked the bill to passage, 213-211, in a subsequent vote. Moderate Republicans were opposed to SNAP changes or other provisions, while conservative House Freedom Caucus members used the vote to voice dissatisfaction with leadership over immigration. In 2018, the House GOP saw its bill go down to defeat on the floor because about 30 Republicans joined Democrats to vote against it. Lawmakers have a fine line to walk in dealing with SNAP, which has often been a flashpoint between Democrats and Republicans who differ on the program's spending levels and ultimate goals. The Republican Main Street Caucus urged Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to consider including Johnson's bill as part of the House GOP's debt ceiling proposals. The robust labor market is expected to weaken in the months ahead, primarily because of the Fed's willingness to raise interest rates.Īnd House Republicans are demanding spending cuts as a condition to raise the debt ceiling, itself a marker of potential economic turmoil ahead. Economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are lingering. Inflation, including the cost of food, is so high that the Federal Reserve is willing to risk recession to slow price rises. Members are writing the bill against the backdrop of extraordinary uncertainty in the economy. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack riled up congressional Republicans with a steep increase in benefits provided in fiscal 2022 after a review of the adequacy of the monthly payments to buy nutritious foods and to cope with surging food prices coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dusty Johnson wants to expand the number of food stamp recipients subject to work requirements and time-limited food benefits by raising the age of people covered by the rules to 65. The 2023 farm bill debate has been unfolding in a series of House and Senate Agriculture committee hearings, and conflicts are already emerging months before the Sept. Now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the food stamp program feeds about 42.5 million people, and the Congressional Budget Office estimated it will cost about $127 billion in fiscal 2023, down about $21 billion from fiscal 2022. Those decisions are likely to have a ripple effect on school nutrition programs that aren't part of the farm bill but aid low-income families that qualify for food stamps. The draft bill may still be months away, but Republican members of Congress have already said they want to toughen eligibility rules for some recipients, revisit the benefits they provide and provide more flexibility to accommodate indigenous groups' traditional foods. You can apply for Basic Food Assistance online or at your local Community Services Office.Īs with all our programs, the only way to know for sure if you are eligible is to apply.Lawmakers, as they work on the 2023 farm bill, are staking out positions on nutrition and food stamps - the Agriculture Department’s biggest single program and a perennial source of contention. is your source to finding healthy and affordable food in Washington State. Households can receive a mix of FAP and SNAP benefits depending on the citizenship or alien status of each person in the home. Benefits are based on household income and the number of eligible people in the home. Households that include a person eligible for FAP receive the same amount of food benefits they would receive for this person if they were eligible for SNAP. Legal immigrants who meet all the Basic Food requirements except citizenship or alien status. FAP is the state food assistance program that provides benefits to legal immigrants who are not eligible for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), called Basic Food in Washington, solely because of immigration status.
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