Farm Bill proposal makes CUTS to nutrition title! WHAT!!??!!

Dammit!

I'm usually not this informal and I know this is lowering the reading level of my blog, but I'm rather apoplectic about this. Despite a recent letter writing campaign which resulted in 28 senators and 153 reps signing a dear colleague letter to include permanent funding for Food Stamps and other nutrition title programs which help Americans at risk for hunger for AT LEAST the House approved levels...the Ag committee proposed a Farm Bill that CUTS those programs. All this before the House conferees are even announced!

F!

I just can't continue....here, read on....
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New Farm Bill Proposal Cuts Nutrition Programs

Washington, DC, February 13, 2008 – Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, issued the following statement today in response to a new proposal sent to the Senate by Representatives Collin Peterson, chairman, and Bob Goodlatte, ranking member, of the House of Representative’s Agriculture Committee:

“House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson and Ranking Member Bob Goodlatte today sent the first proposal to the Senate in order to move the Farm Bill forward. Their outline proposes changes in the commodity title to pay for needs in other parts of the Farm Bill. Yet, significant cuts were made to the nutrition title which provides funding for the Food Stamp Program—our first line of defense against hunger.

“The proposal significantly cuts back the $11.5 billion increase for nutrition programs over ten years passed by the full House in July 2007.

“More than a third of House members recently signed a letter declaring that a final Farm Bill that ‘under-funds improvements in the nutrition title would be unacceptable’ and urges the conference report to ‘include permanent funding at no less than the House-passed levels.’ We couldn’t agree more.

“The final Farm Bill must provide a safety net for people who have the most to lose. Tens of millions of Americans, many of them children and working families, are at risk of hunger every day. Congress cannot compromise the safety net for them.”