Protecting SNAP as the Farm Bill Advances

from CBPP:

Yesterday, the House Agriculture Committee passed the harmful version of the Farm Bill that was introduced just last week. This Farm Bill would make it harder for millions of people to put food on the table by taking away or cutting SNAP benefits from many struggling Americans, including parents raising kids, people with disabilities, and working people. In a sign of how harmful these SNAP proposals are, the Farm Bill—which is typically bipartisan—advanced out of the committee with only Republican votes.
 
The next step in the process is for all House members to vote on the proposal on the House floor. We expect a House floor vote sometime in May, possibly as early as the week of May 7–11. That means the next three weeks—which includes a recess (April 30–May 4) when members of Congress will be home—are critical.
 
Many of you are already doing incredible work to generate strong opposition to this partisan, harmful version of the Farm Bill. Please keep it up! Our goal is to continue to build that opposition, especially in the media, so that we can weaken support for this bill in the House and make sure the Senate keeps working on a bipartisan Farm Bill that protects SNAP.
 
Today’s Scoop contains three things to help you achieve this goal on SNAP and the Farm Bill:

1. NEW talking points to explain how the SNAP proposals in the House Agriculture Committee’s Farm Bill are harmful, unworkable, untested, and wasteful. We also have NEW messaging to help you respond to tough questions or arguments in favor of the bill. You can use these documents to talk to partners about the harmful proposals in the bill, draft a message to your member of Congress or their staff, or write blog posts, letters to the editor, and other media pieces. We’ve also added them to our Farm Bill toolkit, which is still your go-to resource as this process continues!
    
2. Invitation to a webinar on Tuesday, April 24, at 3:30 p.m. Eastern to learn more about the SNAP proposals in the Farm Bill, the best messages to use when talking about the Farm Bill, and actions you can take in the coming days and weeks to protect SNAP. On this webinar, you’ll hear everything you need to know before the congressional recess and the upcoming House vote. Register for the webinar today, and please invite your partners and networks!
    
3. A round-up of CBPP research and analysis on the SNAP proposals in the Farm Bill, including a comprehensive look at every nutrition provision in the bill. You’ll also want to check out our take-down of the flawed studies that conservatives are using to justify taking away SNAP benefits from people in need and our analyses of how the SNAP work proposal would harm many workers; how little the Farm Bill’s funding for work programs can actually buy; and the evidence that mandatory work programs are costly and have limited long-term impact.

If you haven’t weighed in against the harmful SNAP proposals in this version of the Farm Bill, now is the time to do so! Please contact your members of Congress, add your name to a sign-on letter that’s circulating in your state, submit a letter to the editor, or consider other ways to make your voice heard. We all have a stake in protecting SNAP, as defeating the SNAP proposals in the House Agriculture Committee’s Farm Bill is the most important thing we can do to fend off a more sweeping set of changes from the Trump Administration and Congress in health care, housing, and a host of other anti-poverty programs.

As this version of the Farm Bill moves to the House floor, we move ever onward.

Louisa, Deborah & the CBPP Team