Political Quotes

“This week, the House Committee on Agriculture will be marking up the most important bill that almost no one pays attention to, rolled out with very little fanfare. And actually, we can kind of understand why it has been sort of played down a little bit. The draft farm bill makes it more difficult to get SNAP benefits, while weakening the meager limits for farm subsidies and while cutting investments in conservation and innovative programs which people care deeply about. The draft bill cuts billions from those SNAP benefits. It creates burdensome work requirements for caretakers of children over 6 and people between the ages of 50 and 59. Under this provision, people would have to find work or attend job training for at least 20 hours per week. The provisions won't do anything at all to address poverty. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that, even for those in the general population, securing a job within 3 months is virtually unattainable. There will be a spirited debate about whether we ought to reduce nutrition for low-income people, but there are a whole range of other items that need to have attention. The commodities programs that channel 94 percent of the subsidies in the farm bill to people who grow six commodities. This bill will exempt most corporate farms from payment limits and make it easier for large agriculture entities to call themselves family farms and get even more subsidies.…”