Rep. Slaughter Decries GOP's Massive Cuts to Food Assistance

Today, House Rules Committee Ranking Member Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY) decried the House Republicans' bill to cut $40 billion from food assistance programs, a move that would take this critical lifeline away from 4 million Americans, would reduce benefits for another 850,000 Americans, and would take 210,000 hungry kids off of the free school meal program. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) currently provides a benefit of $4.50 per day to 50 million Americans, including 17 million children. The vast majority -- 92 percent -- of Americans who receive food assistance are children, the elderly, disabled, or already working. The GOP bill also jeopardizes food aid for an estimated 170,000 veterans, nearly one in every five veterans who currently receives food assistance.

"It is a shameful day when the government of the richest nation on earth votes to deny food assistance to over 4 million of their citizens, including hundreds of thousands of hungry children," Rep. Slaughter said. "Decades of expanding inequality, misguided trade agreements and the recent financial crisis have decimated the middle class and destroyed good-paying American jobs, forcing many to temporarily rely on food stamps to feed their families. These are not people living lavishly; these are people who are having trouble finding work in a bad economy or are employed in low-wage jobs that don't pay enough to make ends meet. They need a little help to get by, and the SNAP program provides a modest benefit of $1.40 per meal to keep Americans from going to bed hungry."

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