On May 8, the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Nutrition and Horticulture held a hearing, “Formulation of the 2012 Farm Bill: Specialty Crop and Nutrition Programs.” The hearing is part of the committee’s ongoing efforts to reauthorize the legislation commonly called the “Farm Bill,” which expires later this year (P.L. 110-246). The Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry approved its version of the Farm Bill on April 26 (see The Source, 4/27/12). During the hearing, the panel closely examined several nutrition programs included in the legislation that are important to low-income women, children, and seniors.
In his testimony, Ron Haskins, co-director of the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution and senior consultant at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, spoke in support of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the food stamp program) while offering policy options that would reduce federal spending on the program: “As Congress considers savings in means-tested programs in general and the SNAP program in particular, it would be wise to review the costs of policies designed to reduce spending as well as the savings from such policies…[T]he SNAP program performs several functions in admirable fashion: it creates a countercyclical force in the American economy by automatically rising during periods of increased unemployment and falling as unemployment recovers; it serves as a work incentive for millions of working families (but not all working families); and it substantially reduces poverty among low-income working families. In my view, it does not follow that the SNAP program should be off the table as Congress struggles to find ways to reduce the nation’s budget deficit.” He detailed one suggestion to cut spending, saying, “A policy change that would save money, and one already enacted by the House Budget Committee, would be to convert SNAP to a block grant and reduce the amount of money in the block grant as compared with spending under current law.” He detailed another policy option, saying, “To make the determination of how much money a household has to purchase food, SNAP allows households to deduct certain standard expenses from income before computing the eligibility for and level of the SNAP benefit. One of the biggest deductions is the shelter deduction, including spending on utilities. Because documenting utility costs requires lots of paperwork and document verification, states are allowed to have a Standard Utility Allowance that can be claimed by any household that can show it pays out-of-pocket utility costs…Another administrative simplification is that households that receive help from the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) are assumed to be eligible for the Standard Utility Allowance by virtue of the fact that their receipt of LIHEAP demonstrates need…One proposal would repeal the entire LIHEAP-SNAP link so that families that receive the allowance would need to show their utility bills in order to receive the utility portion of the deduction. This proposal would save around $15 billion over ten years.”
Stacy Dean, vice president for food assistance policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, discussed the benefits of the SNAP program and suggested how the program could be improved and streamlined without drastic spending cuts. She said, “Debates over the overall budget framework and whether to cut safety net programs have impeded the conversation that policymakers ought to be having as a part of the farm bill: how can we strengthen SNAP to respond still more effectively to hunger and poverty?” She continued with an example, saying, “One of SNAP’s strengths is that it is not limited to particular population subgroups but, instead, is largely available to low-income people based on their financial circumstances. Some low-income people, however, are not fully eligible for SNAP, which reduces its ability to meet need. While several of SNAP’s eligibility restrictions are worth revisiting, one in particular stands out. Childless unemployed adults face an overly harsh SNAP restriction. People aged 18 to 50 who are not raising minor children may receive SNAP benefits for only three months (while they are not employed at least half time) out of every three years, even if they have looked diligently for work but cannot find it. I encourage the committee to consider moderating this overly harsh restriction.”
Testifying on behalf of the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma,Rodney Bivens, founder and executive director, said, “While we understand the tremendous importance in balancing our nation’s budget, we are compelled to request that you reject any cuts to federal nutrition programs…Any cuts to such vital nutrition assistance will increase hardship within the already struggling population served by the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma and further inhibit our organization’s ability to keep up with the increasing need for supplemental nutrition.” He discussed the importance of one such program, saying, “The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) ensures a steady stream of nutritious United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) commodities for distribution through our nation’s charitable food system…Last year, 17 percent of the 46.2 million pounds of food we distributed through our network of emergency pantries consisted of TEFAP commodities; unfortunately, TEFAP declined this year by an astounding 51 percent because stable commodity prices led to fewer bonus purchases…Without more federal support for TEFAP in the upcoming Farm Bill, both the Regional Food Bank and the entirety of America’s food banking system is at risk of falling behind in meeting the needs of Americans struggling to put food on their tables.”
Jerry Lee, environmental services manager at Monrovia Growers; Michael Jarrard, president and chief operating officer of Mann Packing Company; Lisa Schacht, owner and operator of Schacht Family Farm and Market; Russell Libby, executive director of Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association;Dan Richey, president and chief executive officer of Riverfront Packing Company; and Phil Blalock, executive director of the National Association of Farmers Market Nutrition Programs, also testified.
