USDA official says White House working on farm bill, but avoids comment on nutrition title
January 06, 2014 | 03:01 PM
A key Agriculture Department official today urged Congress to finish the farm bill quickly but avoided comment on reports that the nutrition title will cut $8 billion from the food stamp program over 10 years.
Kevin Concannon
In a call to reporters announcing the USDA’s plans to purchase up to $126.4 million in fruits and vegetables under The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), Agriculture Undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services Kevin Concannon urged Congress to pass the farm bill and to extend unemployment benefits.
But when asked by The Hagstrom Report whether the Obama administration would support congressional proposals to require states to pay at least $20 per year in Low Income Heating and Energy Assistance Program benefits in order to qualify food stamp beneficiaries for higher benefits, Concannon said only that, “I personally favor the recommendations that have been coming out of the Senate provisions of the bill” and that he is “glad” that the farm bill conference report will include both the farm and nutrition titles, which were earlier split apart and passed individually in the House.
Concannon added, however, that White House aides “have been actively involved” in trying to bring the bill to conclusion. He also noted that food banks have been seeing increased traffic since a Recovery Act boost in food stamp benefits expired on November 1.
President Barack Obama had called for no cuts to the food stamp program, which is formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP. But Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and other administration officials have spoken positively about the Senate farm bill, which would cut SNAP by $4 billion over 10 years by requiring states that have been paying as little as $1 per year in LIHEAP benefits to pay $10 per year to increase benefits on the basis that utility expenses reduce participants' available income for food.
The House farm bill would make $39 billion in cuts, but the leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture committees appear to have settled on raising the LIHEAP payment requirement to $20 per year, while leaving out most of the other changes in the House bill.
Anti-hunger groups have opposed the cut, but Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., has called the provision in the current law that increases benefits as long as states make any LIHEAP payment “a loophole.”
On December 31, The Washington Post editorial board, which has generally opposed food stamp cuts, endorsed the $20 per year LIHEAP requirement, saying that “this reform to SNAP is the best hope for staving off more damaging cuts.”
In its editorial, the Post also noted that “Only 4 percent of all SNAP families would see a benefit reduction; crucially, none would lose basic eligibility.”
Anne Alonzo
During the USDA call to reporters, Agricultural Marketing Service Administrator Anne Alonzo noted that the products to be purchased include tart cherries, processed apples, cranberries, fresh tomatoes, wild blueberries, and raisins.
All the products will be domestically produced, she noted, and based on recommendations for healthy eating under USDA’s “My Plate” program. The purchases are expected to be “particularly helpful now” in the midst of severe winter weather in many parts of the country, Alonzo said.
Kevin Concannon
In a call to reporters announcing the USDA’s plans to purchase up to $126.4 million in fruits and vegetables under The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), Agriculture Undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services Kevin Concannon urged Congress to pass the farm bill and to extend unemployment benefits.
But when asked by The Hagstrom Report whether the Obama administration would support congressional proposals to require states to pay at least $20 per year in Low Income Heating and Energy Assistance Program benefits in order to qualify food stamp beneficiaries for higher benefits, Concannon said only that, “I personally favor the recommendations that have been coming out of the Senate provisions of the bill” and that he is “glad” that the farm bill conference report will include both the farm and nutrition titles, which were earlier split apart and passed individually in the House.
Concannon added, however, that White House aides “have been actively involved” in trying to bring the bill to conclusion. He also noted that food banks have been seeing increased traffic since a Recovery Act boost in food stamp benefits expired on November 1.
President Barack Obama had called for no cuts to the food stamp program, which is formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP. But Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and other administration officials have spoken positively about the Senate farm bill, which would cut SNAP by $4 billion over 10 years by requiring states that have been paying as little as $1 per year in LIHEAP benefits to pay $10 per year to increase benefits on the basis that utility expenses reduce participants' available income for food.
The House farm bill would make $39 billion in cuts, but the leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture committees appear to have settled on raising the LIHEAP payment requirement to $20 per year, while leaving out most of the other changes in the House bill.
Anti-hunger groups have opposed the cut, but Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., has called the provision in the current law that increases benefits as long as states make any LIHEAP payment “a loophole.”
On December 31, The Washington Post editorial board, which has generally opposed food stamp cuts, endorsed the $20 per year LIHEAP requirement, saying that “this reform to SNAP is the best hope for staving off more damaging cuts.”
In its editorial, the Post also noted that “Only 4 percent of all SNAP families would see a benefit reduction; crucially, none would lose basic eligibility.”
Anne Alonzo
During the USDA call to reporters, Agricultural Marketing Service Administrator Anne Alonzo noted that the products to be purchased include tart cherries, processed apples, cranberries, fresh tomatoes, wild blueberries, and raisins.
All the products will be domestically produced, she noted, and based on recommendations for healthy eating under USDA’s “My Plate” program. The purchases are expected to be “particularly helpful now” in the midst of severe winter weather in many parts of the country, Alonzo said.
