House passes GOP plan for $39B cut in food stamps

<h3>Bill demonstrates a bitter philosophical divide between Democrats and Republicans over the social safety net.</h3><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXEkFkmLsHNXS9qcqCW5U1lygbm9OPq2UOMIDnHJN5SSei7lGdNJE5r7m_7Cr7lEzFxp7fadcRNXKzTu5GNEvns2drc_H3eaJB6aX33KrgIgH6s6LHfwALSe9E-pZJuhJ1tiJsUgTMzgw/s1600/gop.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXEkFkmLsHNXS9qcqCW5U1lygbm9OPq2UOMIDnHJN5SSei7lGdNJE5r7m_7Cr7lEzFxp7fadcRNXKzTu5GNEvns2drc_H3eaJB6aX33KrgIgH6s6LHfwALSe9E-pZJuhJ1tiJsUgTMzgw/s1600/gop.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />The House approved a Republican plan Thursday to cut food stamps by $39 billion during the next decade, setting up a showdown with Democrats over the program used by nearly 48 million low-income Americans.<br /><br />The House voted 217-210 for the bill that cuts nearly twice as much from food stamps as a bill the House rejected in June. It is also far more than a Senate measure passed earlier this year that would trim about $4.5 billion in spending. The bill failed to draw the support of a single Democrat, many of whom have said the steep cuts would erode a key safety net depended upon by families with children, seniors, veterans and people looking for work.<br /><br />Fifteen Republicans also voted against the bill.<br /><br />Republicans argued that the bill would restore the program's original eligibility limits and preserve the safety net for the truly needy.<br /><br />The bill would cause 3 million people to lose benefits while another 850,000 would see their benefits cut, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. The White House threatened Wednesday to veto the bill, calling food stamps one of the "nation's strongest defenses against hunger and poverty."<br /><br />The battle over food stamps has left in limbo the future of farm policy, and slowed efforts to write a new five-year, $500 billion farm bill. The current law expires on Sept. 30.<br /><br />In June, the House rejected the farm bill in a floor vote that was seen as a major setback to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. Democrats argued that the cuts in the bill were too severe, and Republicans opposed the bill because of costs they said were still too high.<br /><br />A few weeks later, the House broke the farm bill into two separate chunks, narrowly approving the subsidy and conservation section but reserving the food stamp portion for later.<br /><br />The cost of food stamps — officially called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — has exploded over the past decade, according to the Department of Agriculture. In 2001, the program served 17 million people at a cost of just over $15 billion. By June of this year, there were 47.8 million people enrolled in the program, and annual costs were about $75 billion.<br /><br />Republicans argue that the growth has been fueled by allowing states to waive eligibility requirements, allowing more people to enroll in the program than the law originally intended.<br /><br />The bill originally passed by the House Agriculture Committee would have cut $20 billion from the program over 10 years, in large part by limiting the ability of states to automatically qualify people who are already enrolled in other anti-poverty programs. Earlier this week, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., introduced a new version of the bill that boosts the cuts to nearly $40 billion by adding stiffer requirements for many able-bodied recipients to be working or looking for work or in a job-training program. The bill does not include new funding for job training.<br /><br />The Congressional Budget Office estimated that under current law, "spending for SNAP would total $764 billion over the 2014-2023 period." Passage of the House bill would reduce those costs by $39 billion or about a 5%.<br /><br />Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, told USA TODAY's Capital Download on Thursday that Democrats are not opposed to food stamp cuts.<br /><br />"I'm certain that we could embrace as House Democrats some measure of cuts," she said. "I mean, every program can benefit from some savings. But the first go-round the Republicans' proposed cut was $20 billion. Then they passed an amendment that was $31.4 billion. And now that still isn't good enough for the Tea Partiers. Now we're at $40 billion. What they're saying is that in America it's OK for people to go hungry."<br /><br />But Agriculture Committee member Mike Conaway, R-Texas, said Thursday "we are not talking about eliminating the SNAP program." The goal of the bill, he said, is to "limit the public assistance program to those who qualify and close loopholes that have allowed people to game the system." The changes will help "keep the safety net intact for qualified families," he said.<br /><br />Despite the divide between Republicans and Democrats over food stamps, lawmakers in the House and the Senate are expected to move quickly to try to write a farm bill that includes both food stamps and agricultural programs.<br /><br />Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev, said Thursday, ""House Republicans' vote to deny nutrition assistance to hungry, low-income Americans is shameful. The Senate will never pass such hateful, punitive legislation."<br /><br /><h3>If Congress cannot pass a bill, the food stamp program would continue in its present state, with no cuts.</h3><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6PwF5z-WOvcbrC1YyLOqZMu2W3lQ319Q8DN6U56O_sHjjHz_U4q9d8GxhBE2ITqpuuq0JSZiscmXMf3Xoe1lkzDsIS85K2t4GQBgc-1Npv23dkarlfPrpnReTW-tQvIqTdZaILXNqEWg/s1600/index.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6PwF5z-WOvcbrC1YyLOqZMu2W3lQ319Q8DN6U56O_sHjjHz_U4q9d8GxhBE2ITqpuuq0JSZiscmXMf3Xoe1lkzDsIS85K2t4GQBgc-1Npv23dkarlfPrpnReTW-tQvIqTdZaILXNqEWg/s1600/index.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />

House passes GOP plan for $39B cut in food stamps

Bill demonstrates a bitter philosophical divide between Democrats and Republicans over the social safety net. The House approved a Republica...

U.S.D.A. has paid millions to dead farmers

<h3>Payments of $32 million were made to dead farmers between 2008 and 2012 by the Agriculture Department, a new report finds.</h3><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Dead farmers paid: A farmer uses a hay rake behind his tractor to line up cut hay before bailing it." class="image" src="http://newsbcpcol.stb.s-msn.com/amnews/i/92/2e3eeccee3b881bc95b7bd9c37/_h353_w628_m6_otrue_lfalse.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A farmer uses a hay rake behind his tractor to line up cut hay before bailing it.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />WASHINGTON — The U.S. Agriculture Department paid out $32 million in soil conservation payments and crop insurance aid to dead farmers from 2008 to 2012, congressional auditors said Monday, calling for stricter rules to prevent improper payments.<br /><br />In a report, the Government Accountability Office said two USDA agencies did not routinely check master lists compiled by the government to assure payments go only to living recipients. Contracts with USDA often are voided by death, but payments can flow to heirs for work already performed.<br /><br />USDA said the problem was not as broad-scale as auditors suggested in citing potentially improper payments to 4,537 recipients. Some payments were made properly, but errors in recordkeeping misidentified recipients, it said.<br /><br />However, the Risk Management Agency, overseer of the taxpayer-subsidized crop insurance system, said it began in May to match payment record with the Social Security Administration's list of decedents, as suggested by GAO.<br /><br />The Environmental Working Group, which favors more funding for soil and water programs, juxtaposed the potential crop insurance mispayments, "this irresponsible use of scarce taxpayer dollars," with proposals in Congress to slash funding of food stamps for the poor.<br /><br /><br />Improper payments to deceased farmers and landowners are a recurring issue for USDA, although the payments are a small part of agricultural spending of around $20 billion a year on farm subsidies, soil conservation and crop insurance.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwZbxso60-ZGuDLdcr-Z12k1XOEyo3HfT5o59ZCOA5KY_nKG_1RLaY5zBYMUXNcK5_a1LLivPlDgOPISm6NI1L1t90EUCudjn4aFeoscMeM-dJAg1SeD769otnoP9JwmCXa37gaY2XiXw/s1600/usda.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwZbxso60-ZGuDLdcr-Z12k1XOEyo3HfT5o59ZCOA5KY_nKG_1RLaY5zBYMUXNcK5_a1LLivPlDgOPISm6NI1L1t90EUCudjn4aFeoscMeM-dJAg1SeD769otnoP9JwmCXa37gaY2XiXw/s1600/usda.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />Earlier this year, the USDA inspector general said agencies in charge of farm subsidies could be vulnerable to improper payments. A 2007 GAO report listed $1.1 billion in farm payments over six years to deceased persons.<br /><br /><br />GAO said the Natural Resources Conservation Service, in charge of soil and water conservation programs, and the RMA needed "a systematic process" to check for deaths, such as the Social Security Administration list, rather than rely on finding them as part of routine operations.<br /><br />USDA objected to GAO's description that the agencies had no procedures to identify deceased subsidy recipients.<br /><br />In the report, GAO said the Farm Service Agency, which runs the crop subsidy program, had strengthened its oversight of payments since 2008 and now recovers most payments that are made improperly. But GAO said there could be a 9 percent error rate in coding whether payments were proper or improper.<br /><div><br /></div>

U.S.D.A. has paid millions to dead farmers

Payments of $32 million were made to dead farmers between 2008 and 2012 by the Agriculture Department, a new report finds. A farmer uses a h...