Thursday, August 08, 2013

McCaskill urges restoring food stamps to Farm Bill

(From Senator Claire McCaskill)

It's very unusual for people to starve to death in America. It's been that way since the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps) first passed on a strong bipartisan basis.
Now, Republican leaders in the U.S. House have made an unprecedented partisan issue out of this vital program, cutting food stamps out of their version of the Farm Bill, in order to gain just enough conservative votes to pass the legislation (after several failed attempts).
My Senate colleagues and I passed a bipartisan Farm Bill that cut the deficit while maintaining crucial resources for our farmers and ranchers, but House Republicans are refusing to approve it. And this will be the second year in a row that the U.S. House will have failed to approve this traditionally bipartisan effort.
The Farm Bill we passed in the Senate had strong bipartisan support. It cuts the deficit while maintaining both resources for the men and women who grow our food, and crucial support for struggling families.
The fumbling of House Republican leadership is hurting our farmers and ranchers, Missouri's economic health, and those throughout the country who depend on food stamps for basic nutrition.
This has gone on long enough.
If House leadership won't lead, we need to build support among House members to pass this crucial legislation from the ground-up. We need to speak up, and the voice your House representative cares about most is yours.
There is something wrong when legislators would rather make life even harder for struggling families than work with someone across the aisle. We can fix it.
Thank you for taking action today.

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