Victory… For Now

Today, 213 Republicans and Democrats joined together to defeat H.R. 2, a partisan Farm Bill that would take food from more than 2 million individuals nationwide with draconian cuts to SNAP.

This was a terrible bill to begin with, but yesterday, the bill got even worse. Amendments added on the floor did the following:

• Makes work requirements harsher by making it harder for states to waive the SNAP time limit in areas of high unemployment.
• Cut funding for employment and training programs even though the bill widens the scope of people who will need this training to keep getting food assistance for themselves and their children.
• Imposes a lifetime ban on individuals with certain prior felony convictions even though they are working to reintegrate back into society.
• Allows states to hand over key functions of administering SNAP to for-profit companies.

Unfortunately, today’s vote does not end the fight to protect SNAP from harmful cuts in the Farm Bill. The House has until next Tuesday to bring this back for another vote. Between now and then, there will be negotiations to get votes, and that means that even harsher restrictions and limitations on eligibility and access may emerge.

We are thankful to every member of Congress who stood up for hungry families and struggling small farms today by rejecting H.R. 2.

At the same time, we are troubled that there are members of Washington’s delegation who voted to take food off the tables of children, seniors, people with disabilities, and others who struggle every day to make ends meet.

But most of all, we are thankful to all of you for engaging your elected officials, reminding them that SNAP is a critical support to help our communities be healthy and thrive. Please keep up this pressure for the next few days so we can continue to defeat bad policy and encourage support for bipartisan ideas and investments in a healthier food system for all.