Greenstein: Cantor food stamp proposal harsh on top of other cuts
August 05, 2013 | 08:57 PM
Robert Greenstein
The proposal to restrict eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program outlined last week by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., is “stunningly harsh” on top of cuts in benefits that are already scheduled to go into effect, Center for Budget and Policy Priorities President Robert Greenstein said Friday.
The full Cantor proposal has not been made public, but Greenstein noted that it would include the cuts passed by the House Agriculture Committee and amendments added on the House floor.
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., has said the cuts to the SNAP program, better known as food stamps, would add up to $40 billion.
The measure has not been drafted and it is unclear whether Cantor can convince 218 Republican House members to pass it. No Democrat is expected to support it.
Greenstein noted that in addition to making eligibility more difficult, the Cantor proposal “would allow states to end benefits to large numbers of low-income people who want a job but can’t find one — and to keep half the savings and use them for any purpose that state politicians want, including tax cuts, special interest subsidies, or plugging holes in state budgets.”
Greenstein noted that the restrictions “would come on top of an across-the-board SNAP benefit cut for all of the more than 47 million Americans, including 22 million children, who receive SNAP that will take effect on November 1, when a temporary provision of the 2009 Recovery Act expires. Every family of four, for instance, that receives SNAP will see its benefits cut $36 a month in November, or about $400 for the rest of the fiscal year.”
Greeinstein issued a separate statement on the November cuts, with suggestions to states on informing beneficiaries that the cuts are coming.
