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Congress must stand up for families that participate in SNAP

Increasing hunger is a policy choice. The Big Ugly Bill already imposed the largest SNAP cut in the program’s history, and now, with the shutdown, millions more are at risk of losing access to the nutrition program when funding is depleted in two weeks.

The administration can―and must―take steps to protect SNAP benefits. SNAP running out of money would be catastrophic. Nearly 1 in 8 people, including 16 million children and 8 million people with disabilities, would go without the food assistance they need.

Click here to send a message to Congress urging them to tell the Trump administration to fund SNAP during the shutdown.

Two-thirds of the money needed to partially fund another month is in SNAP’s contingency fund, which must be used when regular funding falls short. The contingency fund has $6 billion, which is still short of the $8 billion needed to fully fund SNAP recipients per month. The administration can use other measures to ensure families get full November benefits―and they must act ASAP to give states guidance and enough time to get families the help they need to put food on the table.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration, via the United States Department of Agriculture, moved $300 million to WIC, the nutrition program that serves women, infants, and children. It’s time for the administration to do the same for SNAP, by tapping funds that are allowed by law to be used for this purpose.

Click here to send a message to Congress urging them to tell the Trump administration to fund SNAP during the shutdown.

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The New Congress: How It Plans to Cut And How to Fight Back

December 16, 2016 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

An archive of this webinar is available here.

The Affordable Care Act. Medicaid. Medicare. SNAP. SSI.  Tax rates for the wealthy and corporations. The new Congress wants to repeal, restrict and/or cut all of these.  How will they use their rules to try to carry all this out?  And how will Senators who oppose these goals try to stop the cuts?

Presenters:

Ellen Nissenbaum, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Deborah Weinstein, Coalition on Human Needs

Representative Jim McGovern

Moderator:  Ellen Teller, Food Research and Action Center

What you’ll learn:

The new Congress will try to repeal the Affordable Care Act in January, so President Trump can sign it soon after his inauguration, and enact some kind of replacement later.  They will use budget rules to try to get the repeal done with a simple majority.  Ellen Nissenbaum, a renowned expert on the congressional budget rules, will explain how the rules work, and what leverage points may exist for opponents.  Some actions can pass with only 51 Senators; many others require 60 votes to pass.  These rules affect the strategies over plans to cut/restrict critically important human needs programs, as well as gigantic tax cut proposals.  Advocates need to understand the rules, to work effectively with congressional allies to hold off extreme proposals.  Deborah Weinstein will talk about advocacy strategies we can use together.

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Details

Date:
December 16, 2016
Time:
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Event Category: