The What’s What of Congressional Creations: Making Sense of the Super Committee, Farm Bill, and the Jobs Bill
Posted by Michael McKenna on Tuesday, September 27, 2011
The remembrances of those lost in the tragedy on 9/11 helped restore a sense of unity that hasn’t been felt in some time in Washington and across the country. Americans in every corner of this great nation recalled those months in that fateful fall when we knew we had to work together to heal, to combat the threats that attacked us, and to rebuild stronger than ever. Given the challenges our country faces today, hopefully we can once again muster that common purpose and desire to work together to get our nation back on surer footing.
Part of that of course will require continued investment in our youngest citizens, including the nutrition programs that help them learn and stay healthy. This fall will be an important test of the value our elected officials place on those programs. There are three legislative processes happening all at once to keep your eye on, that I’ll do my best to summarize here.
Super Committee: In a city that loves committees and commissions, this one must be really important. And in fact its reach is considerable. Official known as the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction under the the Budget Control Act – aka the debt ceiling bill,super committee members are tasked with identifying $1.5 trillion in budget cuts over ten years in order to help bring down our deficit. Every federal department has been asked to make tough choices, which could include cuts to critical programs like SNAP (a program you can read more about here on Billy’s blog). If the committee is unable to find at least $1.2 trillion in cuts, then across the board cuts to government programs come into effect. At that point at least, SNAP and school meals are exempt (although WIC is not).. In the past, Congress has reached bipartisan deficit deals while still keeping investments in programs targeted at making our kids hunger-free and healthy, so there is no reason that can’t happen again.
Farm Bill: The Agriculture Committees in the House and Senate have been hosting oversight hearings – basically looking at the full menu of farm programs from food stamps to food safety, dairy cows to corn rows, to figure out how taxpayer dollars are being spent and how they can be spent even better. Food stamps, now known as SNAP, are the largest single program funded by the Farm Bill, and as you have seen in the news, are being used by a record number of Americans. (It is also quite accurate in delivering the right benefits, with an error rate under 4% in FY2010.) If you followed the news about the new poverty data from the Census Bureau, this is not surprising. If 15% of the population is living in poverty, food stamps help prevent you from going hungry and help you stretch limited income (don’t forget that many SNAP recipients are working) . It’s a program that’s meant to help during a downturn, and most Americans are more than happy to stop using the program as soon as they are able. Which brings me to my next point.
Jobs Act: A few weeks ago, the president proposed plans for programs and tax cuts designed to get more Americans back to work in a whole range of industries. This is good news for the No Kid Hungry strategy. More Americans working means more families are able to get back on their feet and afford enough food to feed their families .I can’t tell you if the President’s proposal or some other leader’s is the best solution to the job crisis, but I’m happy to see our leaders taking the jobs crisis, the poverty crisis, the hunger crisis more seriously. Let’s get people back to work!
So what to do? As so many of you have done in the past, be a vocal citizen. Call, tweet, facebook, visit, write your representatives and senator and ask them to do two things. First, maintain adequate funding levels for child nutrition programs. And second, work closely with the administration and their congressional colleagues to find a solution for getting more of our fellow Americans back to work. And to do so in the spirit of collective action that helped our country weather 9/11 and will help our country pass through these present challenges the better for it.
September 27, 2011 | 0 comment(s) | Tags: jobs, no kid hungry, supercommittee
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