Democrats Object to Child Nutrition Bill That Would Cut Food Stamps

More than 100 House Democrats have asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to withhold the Senate child nutrition reauthorization bill from a House floor vote because it uses a reduction in monthly food stamp benefits to offset new spending.

More than 100 House Democrats have asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to withhold the Senate child nutrition reauthorization bill from a House floor vote because it uses a reduction in monthly food stamp benefits to offset new spending.

Specifically, they urged Pelosi not to bring the Senate child nutrition bill (S 3307) before the full House because it proposes to end higher food stamp benefits in 2013 and to use the $2 billion in savings as a partial offset for a $4.5 billion increase in child nutrition spending.

The request is included in a letter from Reps. Jim McGovern ( Mass. ) and Keith Ellison ( Minn. ) to Pelosi and the chairmen of the House Agriculture, Education and Labor, and Ways and Means committees. The letter has 107 signers in addition to those of McGovern, a co-chairman of the House Hunger Caucus, and Ellison.

The opposition to the spending offset threatens to complicate efforts to produce a final bill before the programs, which include school lunches and breakfasts, expire on Sept. 30. The House is not scheduled to return from recess until Sept. 13.

Congress could extend the programs, as it did in 2009, but major policy changes would be lost, such as those that would authorize USDA to set nutrition standards for food sold in school vending machines and a la carte lines.

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