[Vision2020] Food stamp change will hurt kids, educators and advocates testify

[Scott Dredge]

Testifying that "food stamp change will hurt kids" will have zero impact on
the heartless conservative and forced birther crowd.  A better approach to
fend off changes is to provide data on how badly the food stamp changes
will hurt Walmart, their plethora of low wage employees, and their
all-important shareholders.

https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-target-impact-from-trump-food-stamp-changes-2019-12
" More than 700,00 people will soon lose food-stamp benefits under a new
Trump administration rule — and that's terrible news for Walmart, Target,
Kroger, and dollar stores"


On Thu, Feb 6, 2020 at 4:38 PM Moscow Cares <moscowcares at moscow.com> wrote:

> Courtesy of *NBC News *at:
>
>
> https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/food-stamp-change-will-hurt-kids-educators-advocates-testify-n1131646
>
> ———————————————
>
> Food stamp change will hurt kids, educators and advocates testify
>
> “They’re struggling as it is, so when we add this new layer to their
> everyday routine of, how am I going to get food? how am I going to eat? it
> just adds a harmful burden for these kids,” one teacher said.
>
> A rule change to the federal food stamp program proposed by the Trump
> administration will cause children in low-income families across the United
> States to go hungry, educators and hunger advocates told Congress on
> Thursday.
>
>
>
> The four people who testified Thursday said that a proposed Department of
> Agriculture rule change to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,
> or SNAP, was a fundamental misunderstanding of a regulation, known as
> broad-based categorical eligibility, or BBCE. As of now, states are allowed
> to waive asset tests — ignoring whether recipients have a car, assets or
> savings — and raise gross income eligibility limits.
>
>
>
> Currently, a family of three can qualify for SNAP if they earn 130 percent
> of the federal poverty level, or $27,700, or if states raise that to 200
> percent, $40,840. The USDA plans to do away with that state flexibility.
>
>
>
> Critics argue that eliminating BBCE would limit states’ flexibility to
> address their unique populations, leave more than 3 million people without
> access to food through SNAP and cause nearly a million children to lose
> their automatic enrollment in the national school breakfast and lunch
> programs.
>
>
>
> The second of three proposed rule changes to SNAP by the Trump
> administration, this one is expected to take effect soon. An earlier rule
> will impose stricter work requirements on able-bodied adults without
> disabilities, and it is expected to cut benefits to approximately 700,000
> people when it takes effect April 1.
>
>
>
> Many families across the country have gross incomes slightly above 130
> percent of poverty, but still have difficulty feeding their families
> because of the other financial burdens like housing, child care and medical
> benefits, Lisa Davis, the senior vice president of the No Kid Hungry
> Campaign, testified Thursday.
>
>
>
> The point of SNAP is to provide these families with some savings so that
> they can become financially secure and move out of poverty, while reducing
> bureaucratic red tape, she said.
>
>
>
> “BBCE allows these families to remain eligible for SNAP and free school
> meals,” Davis said. “It creates efficiency and reduces administrative
> burdens on state agencies and schools, but most importantly it encourages
> work. It helps low-income families move out of poverty and build financial
> security. It allows them to accumulate modest assets to weather an
> unexpected financial crisis. It also ensures that their children can
> receive the nutrition they need at home and at school.”
>
>
>
> About 96 percent of the children who are slated to lose automatic
> enrollment because of the Trump administration's proposed rule would remain
> eligible for free or reduced school breakfast or lunch, but they would have
> to fill out a separate application.
>
>
>
> SNAP provided benefits to 40.4 million people in the United States during
> an average month of the 2018 fiscal year, according to the USDA, with the
> average benefit measuring about $126 per person per month. Despite that
> help, 47.5 percent of households that received the benefit were food
> insecure.
>
>
>
> Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., the chairman of the Oversight
> Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, said BBCE also helped
> incentivize work. Recipients don't feel as though they must turn down work
> to remain eligible for their SNAP benefits, and it also allows them to own
> a car to drive to work or save money for potential emergencies, he said.
>
>
>
> Krishnamoorthi cited his own story as an example of how SNAP helped his
> family rise out of poverty after they immigrated to the United States from
> India.
>
>
>
> “When we needed help, we were able to receive food stamps as my parents
> worked their way out of that difficult time,” Krishnamoorthi said in his
> opening statement. “Today, my father is an engineering professor, my
> brother is a doctor, and I am fortunate to represent Illinois’ 8th
> Congressional District in Congress and to chair this subcommittee. That was
> my family’s American dream, and it was possible because of my parents’ hard
> work, but also because of the opportunities our country presents.”
>
>
>
> Thursday's hearing is one of four held by the Oversight Committee to
> examine if the Trump administration's proposed regulations will harm
> children.
>
>
>
> The USDA, however, maintained that its goals in changing SNAP eligibility
> is to thwart exploitation of the program, which Agriculture Secretary Sonny
> Perdue said states had allowed without limit.
>
>
>
> “For too long, this loophole has been used to effectively bypass important
> eligibility guidelines. Too often, states have misused this flexibility
> without restraint,” Perdue said in a statement. “The American people expect
> their government to be fair, efficient and to have integrity — just as they
> do in their own homes, businesses and communities. That is why we are
> changing the rules, preventing abuse of a critical safety net system.”
>
>
>
> Craig Gundersen, an agricultural and consumer economics professor at the
> University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who has studied the program for
> more than two decades, said this rule will only make food insecurity worse
> in the United States.
>
>
>
> He estimated that a third of the 3 million people who receive benefits
> through BBCE are currently food insecure, while another third — or one
> million people — will be made food insecure.
>
>
>
> While the USDA said it aims to save taxpayer dollars, he said, this
> increase in food insecurity will also have unintended financial
> consequences, most notably a nearly $1,800 increase in health care costs
> per person, according to a study he worked on for the CDC last year.
>
>
>
> “Food insecurity has costs,” Gundersen said. “When we cut back on SNAP
> benefits what that means is health care costs will increase because you’ll
> have more food insecure households. A lot of these cuts are born by the
> government through Medicaid, Medicare through individuals because
> individuals go to the hospitals for uncompensated care. People are still
> bearing these costs.”
>
>
>
> Gundersen noted that this is a nonpartisan issue, affecting blue states
> and red states. He remarked that Florida and Nevada’s BBCE rules are set at
> 200 percent above the poverty line and Texas’s is set at 165 percent.
>
>
>
> A combined 636,800 people stand to lose access to their SNAP benefits in
> those three states alone, according to an Urban Institute analysis that
> examined the effect this rule would have had if it was implemented in 2018.
>
>
>
> "It enables families that have worked, saved and hit a rough patch to get
> the help they need without having to spend every penny they have in the
> bank," said Robert Gordon, director of the Michigan Department of Health
> and Human Services. "We talked about the challenges for someone who works
> as a waitress, works in a car factory that closed and they lost their job.
> Why would we say to them that they should spend their life savings before
> they get help for food? What if the next day their roof caves in or they
> have a sick child?"
>
>
>
> Furthermore, he said, eliminating this rule could be so stringent that it
> would impose a cliff effect that discourages work, which is antithetical to
> the Trump administration’s stated goals in changing access to SNAP.
>
>
>
> “If you say now to states that it’s only 130 percent of the poverty line
> that are currently eligible, then some people are going to say, ‘Look if I
> don’t cut back my income I’m going to lose my SNAP benefits, so then it
> doesn’t pay for me to work,’” Gundersen said.
>
>
>
> Food banks are also concerned, as they are worried they will have to make
> up for the one billion meals SNAP provided last year to families, according
> to an analysis by Feeding America, a hunger relief organization.
>
>
>
> This would be an impossible task, according to Robert Campbell, the
> managing director of policy at Feeding America.
>
>
>
> For every meal provided by food banks, SNAP provided nine, he explained.
>
>
>
> “SNAP is the first line of defense for millions and millions of people
> around this country,” Campbell said. “The change will only lead to families
> consciously making tradeoffs between food and medicine, food and health
> care.”
>
>
>
> Tega Toney, a high school teacher who serves as the vice president for the
> American Federation of Teachers West Virginia who testified at Thursday’s
> hearing, told NBC News before her appearance that access to SNAP removes a
> burden from students who already face difficult circumstances. Her
> students, she said, are not a number on a spreadsheet but “real live kids
> with real issues.”
>
>
>
> “The deck is really stacked against them with the opioid epidemic, the
> poverty issues we’re having, the declining economic revenue we’re having,”
> she said. “They’re struggling as it is, so when we add this new layer to
> their everyday routine of, how am I going to get food? how am I going to
> eat? it just adds a harmful burden for these kids.”
>
> ———————————————
>
> Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .
>
> "Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
> http://www.MoscowCares.com <http://www.moscowcares.com/>
>
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
>
> “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Trump”
>
> http://www.tomandrodna.com/MoscowCares/Songs/Donald_Trump/Youre_a_Mean_One_Mr_Trump.mp3
>
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