Food stamp cuts impacting 850,000 families have passed Congress and been signed into law, but there is still a way to delay–or even reduce–these cuts. We might only have until Monday to make it happen:
Here’s the story: People who are receiving heating assistance qualify for increased
food stamp assistance, so that families don’t have to choose between eating and
heating their homes. But Congress moved the goal posts for these families,
increasing the minimum amount of heating assistance required in order to
qualify for an increase in food stamp benefits — effectively forcing poor
families to make the choice between eating and heating.
But the states facing cuts–most of which are blue states controlled by
Democrats–can reduce the impact of food stamp cuts for their residents by
increasing the amount of home heating assistance they provide to low-income
families.
The thing that states most need to reduce the food stamp cuts is time–and
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack can give them that time by delaying the
implementation of the food stamp cuts until the fall.
Nearly 100 members of Congress are pushing Secretary Vilsack to delay the food stamp cuts until the fall, and he is expected to announce his decision as soon as next week.
Sign this urgent petition to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack: Delay implementing food stamps cuts.
Keep fighting,
Chris Bowers, Daily Kos