President Donald Trump holds up an executive order to streamline the approval process for GMO crops as Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue claps at the Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy ethanol plant in Council Bluffs, Iowa on June 11, 2019. (Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
'Unconscionable': Amid Coronavirus Crisis, Trump Moves to Take Food Stamps From Over a Million People
"Really it's a cruel rule, taking food out of the mouths of hungry individuals."
The Trump administration made clear this week that it has no plans to scrap--or, at the very least, delay--a rule change that could strip federal food assistance from over a million people in the United States as the coronavirus spreads across the nation, heightening the need for measures to protect the most vulnerable from the economic fallout.
Sonny Perdue, head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, told House lawmakers during an Appropriations Subcommittee hearing this week that the Trump administration considered pushing back implementation of the rule, set for April 1, but ultimately decided against it.
"This is unconscionable," advocacy group Latino Victory tweeted Thursday.
The rule would impose more strict work requirements on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients and constrain states' authority to waive those requirements--a potentially disastrous change in the midst of a pandemic.
"Really it's a cruel rule, taking food out of the mouths of hungry individuals," Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) told Perdue during the budget hearing on Tuesday.
Lauren Bauer, a fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank, told BuzzFeed that she estimated prior to the coronavirus outbreak that 1.3 to 1.5 million people could lose federal nutrition assistance under the Trump administration's SNAP rule change. The Agriculture Department's own estimate indicated that the rule would strip benefits from more than 700,000 people.
"That number is going to be much, much higher" due to COVID-19, Bauer said. "It's going to cause harm both to the people who are eligible for SNAP, but it's also going to cause harm for the economy."
\u201cThousands of American families will lose pay or face new medical costs from #Covid_19, but the Trump administration will continue its plan to leave 700,000 people hungry. https://t.co/HaHYGwI1y0\u201d— Swing Left (@Swing Left) 1584047578
\u201cMonsters https://t.co/Yzb8WzpLkR\u201d— Jamal Raad\ud83c\udf32 (@Jamal Raad\ud83c\udf32) 1584053686
House Democrats, meanwhile, are pushing for a sweeping emergency package that would waive work requirements for SNAP and expand nutrition assistance as the U.S. struggles to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
In a Dear Colleague letter Thursday, Pelosi expressed confidence that congressional negotiators are "near to a bipartisan agreement" on the emergency legislation and said she expects a House vote on Friday.
But Republican leaders in the Senate and President Donald Trump have publicly dismissed the package, so it is unclear which elements of the legislation will become law.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who delayed the Senate's scheduled March recess but allowed senators to go home for the weekend, called House Democrats' Families First Coronavirus Response Act an "ideological wish list."
Trump described the emergency relief package, which also includes increased Medicaid funding and paid sick leave, as Democrats' attempt "to get some of the goodies that they haven't been able to get for the last 25 years."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. The final deadline for our crucial Summer Campaign fundraising drive is just days away, and we’re falling short of our must-hit goal. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
The Trump administration made clear this week that it has no plans to scrap--or, at the very least, delay--a rule change that could strip federal food assistance from over a million people in the United States as the coronavirus spreads across the nation, heightening the need for measures to protect the most vulnerable from the economic fallout.
Sonny Perdue, head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, told House lawmakers during an Appropriations Subcommittee hearing this week that the Trump administration considered pushing back implementation of the rule, set for April 1, but ultimately decided against it.
"This is unconscionable," advocacy group Latino Victory tweeted Thursday.
The rule would impose more strict work requirements on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients and constrain states' authority to waive those requirements--a potentially disastrous change in the midst of a pandemic.
"Really it's a cruel rule, taking food out of the mouths of hungry individuals," Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) told Perdue during the budget hearing on Tuesday.
Lauren Bauer, a fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank, told BuzzFeed that she estimated prior to the coronavirus outbreak that 1.3 to 1.5 million people could lose federal nutrition assistance under the Trump administration's SNAP rule change. The Agriculture Department's own estimate indicated that the rule would strip benefits from more than 700,000 people.
"That number is going to be much, much higher" due to COVID-19, Bauer said. "It's going to cause harm both to the people who are eligible for SNAP, but it's also going to cause harm for the economy."
\u201cThousands of American families will lose pay or face new medical costs from #Covid_19, but the Trump administration will continue its plan to leave 700,000 people hungry. https://t.co/HaHYGwI1y0\u201d— Swing Left (@Swing Left) 1584047578
\u201cMonsters https://t.co/Yzb8WzpLkR\u201d— Jamal Raad\ud83c\udf32 (@Jamal Raad\ud83c\udf32) 1584053686
House Democrats, meanwhile, are pushing for a sweeping emergency package that would waive work requirements for SNAP and expand nutrition assistance as the U.S. struggles to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
In a Dear Colleague letter Thursday, Pelosi expressed confidence that congressional negotiators are "near to a bipartisan agreement" on the emergency legislation and said she expects a House vote on Friday.
But Republican leaders in the Senate and President Donald Trump have publicly dismissed the package, so it is unclear which elements of the legislation will become law.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who delayed the Senate's scheduled March recess but allowed senators to go home for the weekend, called House Democrats' Families First Coronavirus Response Act an "ideological wish list."
Trump described the emergency relief package, which also includes increased Medicaid funding and paid sick leave, as Democrats' attempt "to get some of the goodies that they haven't been able to get for the last 25 years."
The Trump administration made clear this week that it has no plans to scrap--or, at the very least, delay--a rule change that could strip federal food assistance from over a million people in the United States as the coronavirus spreads across the nation, heightening the need for measures to protect the most vulnerable from the economic fallout.
Sonny Perdue, head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, told House lawmakers during an Appropriations Subcommittee hearing this week that the Trump administration considered pushing back implementation of the rule, set for April 1, but ultimately decided against it.
"This is unconscionable," advocacy group Latino Victory tweeted Thursday.
The rule would impose more strict work requirements on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients and constrain states' authority to waive those requirements--a potentially disastrous change in the midst of a pandemic.
"Really it's a cruel rule, taking food out of the mouths of hungry individuals," Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) told Perdue during the budget hearing on Tuesday.
Lauren Bauer, a fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank, told BuzzFeed that she estimated prior to the coronavirus outbreak that 1.3 to 1.5 million people could lose federal nutrition assistance under the Trump administration's SNAP rule change. The Agriculture Department's own estimate indicated that the rule would strip benefits from more than 700,000 people.
"That number is going to be much, much higher" due to COVID-19, Bauer said. "It's going to cause harm both to the people who are eligible for SNAP, but it's also going to cause harm for the economy."
\u201cThousands of American families will lose pay or face new medical costs from #Covid_19, but the Trump administration will continue its plan to leave 700,000 people hungry. https://t.co/HaHYGwI1y0\u201d— Swing Left (@Swing Left) 1584047578
\u201cMonsters https://t.co/Yzb8WzpLkR\u201d— Jamal Raad\ud83c\udf32 (@Jamal Raad\ud83c\udf32) 1584053686
House Democrats, meanwhile, are pushing for a sweeping emergency package that would waive work requirements for SNAP and expand nutrition assistance as the U.S. struggles to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
In a Dear Colleague letter Thursday, Pelosi expressed confidence that congressional negotiators are "near to a bipartisan agreement" on the emergency legislation and said she expects a House vote on Friday.
But Republican leaders in the Senate and President Donald Trump have publicly dismissed the package, so it is unclear which elements of the legislation will become law.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who delayed the Senate's scheduled March recess but allowed senators to go home for the weekend, called House Democrats' Families First Coronavirus Response Act an "ideological wish list."
Trump described the emergency relief package, which also includes increased Medicaid funding and paid sick leave, as Democrats' attempt "to get some of the goodies that they haven't been able to get for the last 25 years."