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Thursday, December 06, 2007
Important Farm Bill Vote Tomorrow
A key vote on the Farm Bill, which includes increases in funding for anti-hunger programs, is set for December 7th (tomorrow). The Food Research and Action Center and the Coalition on Human Needs are asking people to call their Senator in support of the increases.
The vote is on whether to filibuster the bill, and it's probably even more important than the vote on whether to actually pass it. We need 60 votes to avoid a filibuster. We need only a majority to pass the bill, and previous votes have shown that there's a clear majority in favor of the bill.
Here are CHN's tips for contacting your Senator:
Message: Hungry people can't wait. The Senate must finish its work on the 2007 Farm Bill and pass a Farm Bill with a strong nutrition title as soon as possible in December.
Toll-free line: Use a toll-free line to the U.S. Capitol (1-800-826-9624) that has been made available by AARP while the Senate Farm Bill is pending. (You will hear a short message about the nutrition title before being transferred to an office). Or call your Senators via the Capitol switchboard (202-224-3121).
What's at Stake: The House approved its Farm Bill (H.R. 2419) on July 27th. That bill provides $4.2 billion in new five-year funding for nutrition programs, mainly for food stamps and TEFAP. For food stamps, H.R. 2419, among other things, would raise the minimum benefit, increase the standard deduction, more fully reflect a food stamp household's expenditures on child care, not count extra combat pay against military families, and allow food stamp households to have more in savings and still be program eligible -- by excluding education savings and retirement accounts and starting to index the $2,000 and $3,000 asset limits applicable to most households and households with elderly and disabled members, respectively. H.R. 2419 also provides $250 million per year and then indexes that amount for TEFAP commodity purchases.
The Senate Agriculture Committee voted out its Farm Bill on October 25th, with $4.3 billion in new five-year funding for nutrition programs (of which $3.2 billion would support improvements in Food Stamp Program benefits and accessibility and TEFAP commodity purchases). On November 1st, Senate Agriculture Committee leaders announced a bipartisan agreement to take more than $1 billion in offsets approved in another part of the bill to further strengthen the Food Stamp minimum benefit and asset tests and to increase TEFAP funding. In addition to the asset rule changes contained in H.R. 2419, the Senate bill would increase asset limits from $2,000 and $3,000 to $3,500 and $4,500, respectively. Several pending amendments would build on those provisions, including a boost in the minimum benefit to a more meaningful level.
Posted by Matt Lewis
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