FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 1, 2007
Berry Friesen: (717) 233-6705
	(717) 471-9691(cell)

Bush Administration Would Reduce Funding for the Food Stamp Program

Proposal Included in Administration's Farm Bill Recommendations

Harrisburg (February 1, 2007). The Farm Bill package released yesterday by United States Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns includes a proposal to cut funding for the Food Stamp Program by $66 million over the next ten years.

The cut, although tiny in comparison to a program that spends around $40 billion annually, is surprising because it is combined with implicit acknowledgement by the USDA that the Food Stamp Program (FSP) needs to be strengthened. According to Berry Friesen, executive director of the Pennsylvania Hunger Action Center: “T he Administration has correctly identified two areas that require attention:  out-of-date and counter-productive asset limits and the need to strengthen the value of the food package so FSP consumers can afford to buy fruits and vegetables.  Good as it is to recognize the problems, the Administration does not go nearly far enough in addressing them.” 

As proposed by the Administration, retirement savings and college accounts would be excluded from consideration when assessing food stamp eligibility. However, it would leave in place the current asset limit ($2,000), which has not been adjusted in 25 years. Were the asset limit adjusted to current dollars, it would be nearly $4,000.

The Administration also proposes demonstration projects that would incorporate incentives for FSP consumers to purchase more fruits and vegetables. However, this good idea would receive only $20 million annually and would benefit only a tiny fraction of FSP households.

“A strong and flexible Food Stamp Program is absolutely essential to low-wage working parents,” said Friesen. “Currently most families can not get help until their reserves are nearly depleted. And those who get on the program are constantly faced with the dilemma of trading quality in their food purchases for quantity. That’s a wrenching decision for a parent to make.”

The Administration’s proposal would totally eliminate the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which provides food boxes to low-income seniors. That program has proved itself particularly effective in helping home-bound seniors remain in their own homes. Currently nearly 14,000 Pennsylvania seniors receive a food box each month under the program.

Currently nearly 500,000 Pennsylvania households are enrolled in the Food Stamp Program. Last year the program provided $1.1 billion to Pennsylvanians for the purchase of groceries. Dollars driven by the nutrition title account for an estimated 75 percent of the benefit received by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from the Farm Bill.

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