Hunger advocates: 150,000 Minnesotans could be affected by House GOP’s $300 billion in food stamp cuts

Gail Donkers remembers struggling to buy groceries for her young family on a tight budget Constituents assistance funds helped the southern Minnesota corn soybean and livestock farmer Donkers noted she used federal help to buy peanut butter baby formula and other essentials for her household She s proud not ashamed of how much constituents assistance helped her family We were starting a business I worked full-time off the farm and my husband was farming hours per a week if not more she disclosed We now have three college graduates and a grandson It meant so much to our family at that time Gail Donkers of Faribault talks about her past experience receiving populace assistance benefits Monday in Mankato at a roundtable event that highlighted negative impacts of proposed food stamp SNAP cuts Credit Brian Arola MinnPost Donkers participated in a roundtable in Mankato this week the third such event organized by the Minnesota Department of Children Youth and Families and other state agencies to decry congressional efforts to cut the food stamp project which serves about families in Minnesota The U S House Agriculture Committee was tasked with slashing billion from U S Department of Agriculture programs as the GOP-controlled Congress works towards a huge budget bill that would shrink authorities spending and renew tax cuts Trump established in his first term that are about to expire The largest USDA initiative by far is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Campaign SNAP the official name for food stamps and that s where the panel determined the greater part of its savings In fact it ascertained billion in savings Much of that would come from the imposition of tougher work requirements for SNAP recipients who as of now receive an average of a day in benefits The rule voted out of the committee late Wednesday would increase the age for complying with SNAP s work requirements from to Recipients would have to work or analysis for at least hours a month While adults with dependent children are exempt from work requirements the ordinance would change the age limit of those dependents from to years old Democrats on the Agriculture Committee introduced dozens of amendments on Wednesday that would amend the provision during a marathon session Rep Angie Craig D- nd District the top Democrat on the panel mentioned Democrats worked tirelessly to try to put lipstick on this bill Rep David Scott D-Georgia introduced an amendment that would strip out all proposed food stamp cuts People are going to die they are going to starve they are not going to make it Scott explained during an often emotional debate Scott also inquired Republicans on the panel who were largely absent for largest part of the markup of the bill Where are your values and accused his GOP colleagues of stripping food aid from single mothers to give tax breaks to billionaires like Elon Musk Other Democrats introduced amendments that would lower the work requirement age and raise the age of the children that would allow a caretaker to receive benefits Democrats also tried to reverse the decree s complete elimination of the SNAP Nutrition Mentoring project which funds programs at Minnesota food banks and the University of Minnesota aimed at helping low-income individuals and families make diet and lifestyle choices to improve their fitness and prevent obesity Related USDA cuts hit food banks risking hunger to low-income Minnesotans But all of the attempts to change the bill were knocked down by the GOP lawmakers who hold a majority on the panel At one point Craig requested the committee vote to adjourn the hearing That prompted the absent GOP lawmakers to run through the halls of Congress to return to the committee room to vote down the attempt to end consideration of the bill The Republican lawmakers then again left the room The bill now goes to the Budget Committee where it will be included in Trump s budget bill The Center on Budget and Guidelines Priorities estimates that the work requirements would end in an end of SNAP benefits for about Minnesotans and the act would put another state residents at threat of losing specific of their benefits Proposals to change SNAP would send shockwaves throughout our state noted Tikki Brown commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Children Youth and Families Cuts to SNAP mean fewer dollars for families already struggling and it would disproportionately harm working parents rural communities tribal nations and seniors on fixed outcomes Shifting food stamp costs to the states House Republicans commented in a announcement that the ordinance focused on reinforcing work rooting out waste and instituting long-overdue accountability incentives to control costs and end executive and state overreach Meanwhile House Democrats disclosed the rule would increase hunger and social instability With American families feeling anxious about the financial sector and so much uncertainty in farm country this is not the time to make reckless cuts to basic requirements programs noted Craig The Agriculture Committee bill also shifts part of the cost of the food stamp venture to the states At this time the states administer the initiative and the federal leadership pays for all of the cost of providing benefits But beginning in states would have to pay for at least of the operation and possibly more based on their payment error rates that is how much they overpay recipients According to the USDA Minnesota had an error rate of in less than half the national error rate But states that have error rates of to would pay of the cost of the SNAP states with rates of to would pay and those with error rates that exceed would pay The rule would also reduce the money the federal regime gives states to administrate the campaign and block the USDA from increasing the cost of the Thrifty Food Plan a yardstick the agency uses to determine benefit amounts The bill would also limit the types of legal immigrants that can apply for help barring those with refugee or humanitarian parole status Meanwhile the nation s farmers who ve decried Congress failure to pass a new five-year farm bill would benefit from an additional billion in spending to shore up their federal safety net Among other things the House Agriculture Committee bill would increase crop reference prices and boost crop and livestock insurance payments and conservation funding It would also add to the USDA bargain promotion and research budgets and increase the amount of money the federal pays beet and cane sugar farmers if processors don t purchase their crop A time of uncertainty The proposed cuts to the food stamp scheme come as grocery prices are stubbornly high and food shelves which have suffered from Trump administration cuts in funding are struggling to keep up with need The shelves already help food stamp recipients who can t make it on the amount of benefits they receive We re bursting at our seams announced Deisy De Leon Esqueda manager of the ECHO Food Shelf in Mankato We re seeing higher food prices just as our clients are and we really don t know what s going to happen De Leon Esqueda also reported it s just a time of a lot of uncertainty not only for us but for our region We have three times as a multitude of visits to food shelves as we saw in Sophia Lenarz-Coy executive director of The Food Group a nonprofit that fights hunger She explained she lately inquired a lawmaker what he thought about taking grocery money away from constituents She disclosed the lawmaker denied any cuts were happening instead referring to the proposal to cut food stamps as optimizing the scheme It didn t even feel like we were veritably having the same conversation Lenarz-Coy reported It s a very well optimized operation Farmers are unhappy about the proposed cuts to SNAP and so are the nation s grocers Steve Barthel a lobbyist for the Minnesota Grocers Association announced SNAP funding supports about jobs nationwide from grocers to retailers to wholesalers to transportation workers and farmers In Minnesota cuts to SNAP could conclusion in loss of jobs in the food industry Barthel stated In selected of the places where stores are already holding on by just a thread the cuts to SNAP could be the difference between staying open and being closed he added The post Hunger advocates Minnesotans could be affected by House GOP s billion in food stamp cuts appeared first on MinnPost