Media Contact:
Emily Pickren
epickren@frac.org
202-640-1118
The FY2017 Budget Resolution voted out of the House Budget Committee last night threatens severe budget cuts to essential federal programs serving low-income families and individuals. If enacted, the changes would mean more hunger and deeper poverty for very vulnerable people, including families with children, elderly people, and people with disabilities.
The House Budget Committee’s proposed SNAP block grant (titled “State Flexibility Fund”) would rob the program of its greatest strengths: e.g, key basic rules that protect hungry people in all states; and the ability to expand in times of economic or natural disaster, and then retract when conditions improve. In addition, the Committee’s resolution would cut ten-year spending for Medicare by $449 billion, Medicaid by more than $1 trillion, and other mandatory programs by a total of $1.5 trillion, slashing vital funding for SNAP and other parts of the social safety net by unspecified amounts.
FRAC urges Congress to reject the ill-conceived and dangerous House Budget Committee resolution. FRAC joins with national, state and local allies in working against the House Budget Committee resolution and instead supports policies that put our nation on a path to end hunger.
Statement attributable to Jim Weill, president of the Food Research & Action Center
