Instead, Congress urged to reduce subsidy programs to trim agriculture budget.
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Advocates for the poor and small farmers want Congress to spare the Food Stamp Program as it cuts $3.2 billion from agriculture programs in the federal budget.
Needed cuts should come from commodity subsidy programs, most of which go to some of the largest and richest farm corporations, rather than from the Food Stamp Program for the poor, they said.
Representatives of the Virginia Poverty Law Center, the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy and Oxfam America held a news conference in Richmond yesterday to address the threat to the Food Stamp Program.
Congress must cut the budget without taking food away from the children and families who are least able to protect themselves, said Steven Myers, executive director of the Poverty Law Center.
Roughly half a million Virginians use food stamps with benefits averaging 91 cents per meal. Nationwide, 25 million low-income people get food stamps and 80 percent live in households with children, the groups said.
In this year's budget deal, the Senate and House of Representatives agreed to cut $3.2 billion from agriculture programs over five years, or about 1 percent of the $300 billion that will be spent. The cuts include $173 million from the 2006 budget, effective Oct. 1.
Rasa Zimlicki, a Virginia representative of Oxfam America, said reforming subsidy programs could provide the budget savings Congress needs. Zimlicki endorsed a proposal made by some in Congress and the Bush administration to reduce the yearly maximum on farm program payments to one individual from $360,000 to $250,000 and to close loop- holes that allow some farmers to collect much more.
No Virginia farm received more than $250,000 in commodity subsidies in 2003 and none would be hurt by the limit, she said. Only about 20 percent of Virginia's 47,606 farms get a federal subsidy.
Several news reports have suggested that Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte, R-6th, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, favors cutting the Food Stamp Program to balance the budget.
But in a statement provided by Goodlatte's office yesterday, the congressman said he has approached the budget-cutting process with an open mind.
"I believe that the committee's final recommendations will be balanced in terms of the impact they will have on the diverse interests of production agriculture, nutrition, conservation and trade," he said.
More than half of the $300 billion to be spent on agriculture in the next five years will go to food stamps and other food assistance, seven times more than will be spent on conservation and environmental programs, Goodlatte said.
Based on current error rates, the government will issue food stamps to unqualified people in an amount exceeding the $3.2 billion needed in budget savings, he said.
"It only makes sense for the Agriculture Committee to take a look at this," he said. Goodlatte's committee faces a Sept. 16 deadline to propose its cuts.
Greg Edwards can be reached at (804) 649-6390 or [email protected]
This story can be found at:Richmond Times Dispatch
