Food Stamps Cut by $4 Billion After House GOP Members to Vote to Reduce Benefits
House Republicans narrowly passed a bill to reduce funding for the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program on Thursday, setting up a showdown with the Senate.
The vote was 217 to 210 and was largely along party lines as Republican leaders insisted the bill was needed because the food stamp program, which costs roughly $80 billion a year, had grown out of control.
"This bill eliminates loopholes, ensures work requirements, and puts us on a fiscally responsible path," said Representative Marlin Stutzman, Republican of Indiana. "In the real world, we measure success by results. It's time for Washington to measure success by how many families are lifted out of poverty and helped back on their feet, not by how much Washington bureaucrats spend year after year."
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1.7 million people are now in jeopardy of being forced to forgo benefits in 2014 after state waivers were repealed as proposed by Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), according to the Congressional Budget Office. Another 2.1 million would are set to be dropped due to tighter eligibility rules backed by the GOP.
On average, CBO estimates that a total of 2.8 million people are going to lose their benefits over the next decade, and another 850,000 households will see an average reduction of about $90 a month in benefits when the average household receiving food assistance gets roughly $300 per month.
The net 10-year savings for the government would be approximately $39 billion-- nearly double what was first recommended by the House Agriculture Committee in June.
"The majority is again catering to the extremes of their party, pushing messaging bills to nowhere. It's time to get serious. If they will just get out of our way, the House and Senate Agriculture Committees can work together and provide farmers, ranchers and consumers the certainty of a five-year farm bill," said Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson, the ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture panel
