Contact:
Emily Pickren
epickren@frac.org
202-640-1118
Statement attributed to James D. Weill, President, Food Research & Action Center (FRAC)
WASHINGTON, June 21, 2018 — The passage of the House Farm Bill, H.R. 2, betrays the historic bipartisan commitment to making sure people who are struggling have enough to eat. The bill will take food out of the refrigerators and off the tables of millions of people in need, leading to greater hunger and poverty.
Protecting and strengthening the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — not cutting it, as H.R. 2 does — is one of the most efficient and effective solutions to ending hunger and poverty in America.
The changes to SNAP in the House Farm Bill will affect people in all areas of the country, but low-income people in rural areas would be hardest hit. Households in rural areas and small towns continue to be more likely to receive assistance from SNAP than their metro area counterparts, according to FRAC’s SNAP Maps.
Hundreds of state and national groups (pdf), including groups representing children, seniors, people with disabilities, and veterans, as well as many in the health care, education, religious, and business sectors, have come out in strong opposition to the bill.
Instead of passing a bill that would end or reduce struggling families’ access to food, Congress needs to support policies that end hunger and lift people out of poverty. The Senate Farm Bill (S. 3042) recognizes the important role of SNAP in addressing hunger and poverty, and provides a more constructive path to bipartisan passage of a Farm Bill with a strong SNAP component. As the legislative process continues, FRAC will continue to urge policymakers to reject H.R. 2’s SNAP cuts and instead maintain the approach adopted by the Senate Farm Bill, S. 3042.
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The Food Research & Action Center is the leading national nonprofit organization working to eradicate poverty-related hunger and undernutrition in the United States.
