AT Safety Net DA - Michigan 7 2023 BFHGR

Affirmative
AT U
N/U SNAP – Debt Deal Thumps
Debt ceiling deal will cut spending and infringe increased work requirements on IKBs.
Jim Tankersley and Alan Rappeport, 5/29/2023, White House correspondent for The New York Times with a focus on economic policy and over a decade of experience covering politics and economics in Washington, economic policy reporter at The New York Times based in Washington who covers the Treasury Department and other fiscal matters, “New Details in Debt Limit Deal: Where $136 Billion in Cuts Will Come From,” The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/29/us/politics/debt-ceiling-agreement.html
Caps and cuts spending
The bill cuts so-called nondefense discretionary, which includes domestic law enforcement, forest management, scientific research and more — for the 2024 fiscal year. It would limit all discretionary spending to 1 percent growth in 2025, which is effectively a budget cut, because that is projected to be slower than the rate of inflation.
The legislative text and White House officials tell different stories about how big those cuts actually are.
Some parts are clear. The proposed military spending budget would increase to $886 billion next year, which is in line with what Mr. Biden requested in his 2024 budget proposal, and rise to $895 billion in 2025. Spending on veterans’ health care, including newly approved measures to assist veterans exposed to toxic burn pits, would also be funded at the levels of Mr. Biden’s proposed budget.
Legislative text suggests nondefense discretionary outside of veterans’ programs would shrink in 2024 to about last year’s spending levels. But White House officials say a series of side deals with Republicans, including one related to funding for the Internal Revenue Service, will allow actual funding to be closer to this year’s levels.
Although Republicans had initially called for 10 years of spending caps, this legislation includes just 2 years of caps and then switches to spending targets that are not bound by law — essentially, just suggestions.
The White House estimates that the agreement will yield $1 trillion in savings over the course of a decade from reduced discretionary spending.
A New York Times analysis of the proposal — using White House estimates of the actual funding levels in the agreement, not just the levels in the legislative text — suggests it would reduce federal spending by about $55 billion next year, compared with Congressional Budget Office forecasts, and by another $81 billion in 2025. If spending then returned to growing as the budget office forecasts, the total savings over a decade would be about $860 billion.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy has said he believes a majority of his conference would vote for the deal.
Claws back I.R.S. funding
The legislation takes aim at one of President Biden’s biggest priorities — bolstering the I.R.S. to go after tax cheats and ensure companies and rich individuals are paying what they owe.
Democrats included $80 billion to help the I.R.S. hire thousands more employees and update its antiquated technology in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act. The debt limit agreement would immediately rescind $1.38 billion from the I.R.S. and ultimately repurpose another $20 billion from the $80 billion it received through the Inflation Reduction Act.
Administration officials said on Sunday that they had agreed to reprogram $10 billion of extra I.R.S. money in each of the 2024 and 2025 fiscal years, in order to maintain funding for some nondefense discretionary programs.
The clawback will eat into the tax collection agency’s efforts to crack down on rich tax cheats. It is also a political win for Republicans, who have been outraged by the prospect of a beefed up I.R.S. and approved legislation in the House to rescind the entire $80 billion.
Still, because of the leeway that the I.R.S. has over how and when it spends the money, the clawback might not affect the agency’s plans in the next few years. Officials said in a background call with reporters that they expected no disruptions whatsoever from the loss of that money in the short term.
That’s likely because all of the $80 billion from the 2022 law was appropriated at once, but the agency planned to spend it over eight years. Officials suggested the I.R.S. might simply pull forward some of the money earmarked for later years, then return to Congress later to ask for more money.
New work requirements for government benefits
The legislation would impose new work requirements on older Americans who receive food stamps through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and who receive aid from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program.
The bill imposes new work requirements for food stamps on adults ages 50 to 54 who don’t have children living in their home. Under current law, those work requirements only apply to people age 18 to 49. The age limit will be phased in over three years, beginning in fiscal year 2023. And it includes a technical change to the T.A.N.F. funding formula that could cause some states to divert dollars from the program.
The bill would also exempt veterans, the homeless and people who were children in foster care from food-stamp work requirements — a move White House officials say will offset the program’s new requirements, and leave roughly the same number of Americans eligible for nutrition assistance moving forward.
Still, the inclusion of new work requirements has drawn outrage from advocates for safety net assistance, who say it punishes vulnerable adults who are in need of food.
“The agreement puts hundreds of thousands of older adults aged 50-54 at risk of losing food assistance, including a large number of women,” Sharon Parrott, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said in a statement.
N/U SNAP Cuts Now
SNAP benefits are already doomed – they were slashed post-COVID.
Chris Shirley 2/22/2023, marketing and public relations specialist, "SNAP Benefits Will Decrease For Millions," Navigate Housing, https://www.navigatehousing.com/snap-benefits-will-decrease-for-millions/
SNAP benefits will decrease for millions of low-income households this Spring. The program, formerly known as food stamps, received a significant boost during the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Those protections will soon expire as lawmakers discuss the program’s future in Farm Bill discussions. The decrease also goes against the Biden Administration’s plan to expand SNAP benefits and end hunger by 2030. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found more than 38 million people benefited from SNAP before to the pandemic in 2019. As COVID-19 swept across America, Congress raised all benefits by 15% and boosted each household to the maximum benefit for the size. The USDA approximates at least a $95 increase for every household. While the pandemic boosts to SNAP benefits will expire, the future of the program’s funding is uncertain. Lawmakers in Washington, D.C. are working on a new, multi-year Farm Bill. Nutrition programs, like SNAP, accounted for 76% of the last Farm Bill passed in 2018. SNAP Benefits is the largest Anti-Hunger program in the nation, according to the USDA. The program has bipartisan support. However, several leaders voiced concern over the program during a recent Senate agriculture committee hearing. Sen. John Boozman is a ranking committee member sharing his concern. Boozman calls the pandemic boost to SNAP Benefits “unsustainable.” Moreover, he points to SNAP costs increasing 94% since the last Farm Bill passed five years ago. “When one program constitutes more than 80% of the spending in the next farm bill, and thereby effectively crowds out the ability to make crucial investments in every other title, is there really any room left for farmers in the traditional farm bill coalition?” Boozman said during the hearing. What’s Next for SNAP Benefits and The Farm Bill? Sen. John Boozman joins other Lawmakers on Capitol Hill, calling for more strict work requirements for SNAP benefits. Before COVID-19, 20 hours of work per week, or job training was required to be in the program. However, those requirements were paused because of the pandemic. The Food Research and Action Center estimates the average recipient will lose $82 starting in March 2023. The decrease comes as record inflation continues to fuel the increase of food costs Nationwide. As Farm Bill discussions continue, more lawmakers are targeting SNAP benefits spending as discussions about decreasing the national debt continue. Lawmakers have until October 1, 2023, to pass an extension or a new Farm Bill. Otherwise, millions who rely on ‘food stamps’ face even further economic uncertainty this Fall.
Post-COVID “hunger cliff” thumps
Michael Sainato, 3-17-2023, labor reporter at the Guardian and experienced journalist with a demonstrated history of working in the media industry with a Bachelor of Arts focused in English Language and Literature from Binghamton University, "Low-income Americans face a ‘hunger cliff’ as Snap benefits are cut," Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/mar/17/snap-food-benefits-us-cuts-impact-families
Gina Melton is facing a dilemma. Like millions of other Americans, Melton and her family relied on food assistance benefits boosted by Congress to help them through the pandemic. Now that extra cash is gone. The reduction has hit them hard. Three of her family members are disabled and one of her daughters works to take care of them through an agency. They had already relied on credit cards to pay for medical equipment that wasn’t covered by the federal health insurance schemes Medicare or Medicaid but have had to stop paying a couple of them in order to afford food. “When you have to choose between feeding your family and paying a credit card bill, you have to choose food,” said Melton, 62. Around 42 million Americans are currently enrolled in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) benefits. Congress increased Snap benefits in response to the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020. The last extra payments went out at the end of February in the remaining 32 states that were still issuing them, in addition to the District of Columbia, Guam and the US Virgin Islands. The emergency allotments were authorized in tandem with the Covid-19 emergency declaration in March 2022, but in December 2022, Congress passed a law to end the allotments. The lapse in the additional benefits will reduce Snap allotments for the average recipient by $90 a month, with some households losing $250 a month or more. Older adults at the minimum benefit level will see their monthly Snap benefits drop from $281 a month to $23. Though Melton’s husband, a diabetic, is still recovering from a recent surgery, he has been considering going back to work part time at the age of 65 as the family struggles to afford basic necessities, including healthy food. They’ve cut back on food purchases and buy what’s on sale or in reduced-price bins. “The extra food allotment was helping us a lot,” said Melton. “We’ve started shopping at lower-priced stores that don’t bag your groceries, but for a disabled person like myself, that requires me to go with a helper. We’ve also cut back on some more expensive necessities and are relying on the local food pantry more.” All food prices will increase by 7.9% percent in 2023, – and they were already 9.5% higher in February 2023 compared with February 2022. The end of the expanded benefits comes at a time when US consumer debt has been on the rise, with 20.5 million Americans currently behind on their utility payments and nearly 25 million behind on credit card, auto loan or personal loan payments, the highest number since 2009. Low-wage workers in the US, who make less than $20 an hour, have experienced drops in wage growth compared with other workers in recent months. Food prices have risen and are expected to continue to rise significantly in 2023 as well. The US Department of Agriculture estimated that all food prices will increase by 7.9% in 2023 – and they were already 9.5% higher in February 2023 compared with February 2022. With so many Americans receiving Snap benefits because of low wages, unemployment and underemployment, the sudden end of the emergency allotment has been characterized as a “hunger cliff”. Ellen Vollinger, Snap director for the nonprofit Food Research and Action Center, said: “The cliff is aptly named because this a very abrupt change in what people are going to have in their food budget and it’s affecting tens of millions of people. “When the federal government doesn’t provide as much support for food, it doesn’t mean that hungry people all of a sudden are better off, or no longer need assistance, or they go away. The hunger is still there, people are still there, the need is there, but the federal government is too abrupt in shifting the burden and costs of dealing with that downstream, to states [and] localities, and puts a greater burden on charities.” Vollinger noted that the end of emergency allotments leaves low-income families facing difficult choices around food, from forgoing meals and purchasing less to buying cheaper food. “There’s a lot of stress, that’s why we call it a hunger cliff. It’s very precipitous,” she added. Food banks have been bracing for a surge in demand as the expanded Snap benefits expire, with state agencies directing recipients to food pantries to help cope with the reduction in benefits.
N/U SNAP – Farm Bill
SNAP is vulnerable – Republicans are determined to make cuts and Dems are a disorgnanized mess.
Meredith Lee Hill and Garrett Downs, 3/13/2023, food and agriculture policy reporters for POLITICO. "Republicans launch opening salvo against food aid," POLITICO, https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/13/republicans-snap-benefits-cuts-00086638
House Republicans are taking their first shot at slashing federal spending on nutrition programs for low-income Americans. It won’t be their last.
Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), is introducing a bill Tuesday, shared exclusively with POLITICO, to expand current restrictions on who qualifies for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps. It’s the first of what is expected to be a wave of GOP efforts this year to set limits on SNAP, the country’s largest food assistance program, which grew significantly during the pandemic. But while Republicans have telegraphed their desire to curb nutrition spending, House Democrats have yet to mount a coordinated response, raising concerns in the caucus about whether they can fend off likely GOP attacks on the program during the negotiations over the debt limit, budget and 2023 farm bill.
Johnson’s bill would expand the age bracket for able-bodied SNAP recipients without dependents, who have to meet complicated work requirements. The legislation would also limit the federal government’s ability to waive those work requirements for states he says are abusing loopholes in the system.
Supporters say enhancing work requirements as outlined in Johnson’s proposal is key to reducing cycles of perpetual poverty, and it will also save taxpayers money.
“We know that work is the only path out of poverty,” said Johnson, a member of the House Agriculture Committee whose family received SNAP benefits when he was a child growing up in Pierre, South Dakota.
Johnson hopes his proposal will be folded into the upcoming farm bill, which lawmakers will draft later this year, but it will face stiff resistance in the Democrat-controlled Senate. Other GOP lawmakers are now pressing for similar work requirements to be part of any deal on the debt limit between the White House and the House GOP. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) reintroduced a bill in January that would raise the age for food assistance work requirements by a decade to 59.
Democrats, however, note the majority of people who receive SNAP benefits are already working and, at the moment, are grappling with surging food prices, a challenge exacerbated by the end of a pandemic-era increase in aid.
“These guys talk about states’ rights all the time, except when it comes to poor people,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, one of the biggest anti-hunger advocates in the House.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations committee who’s had a series of budget talks with her Republican counterparts, noted this is a perennial fight.
“This is not something new, this go round. All you have to do is look back over the years,” DeLauro said. She added many House Republicans, who are currently eyeing broad cuts across anti-hunger programs and other social spending, would “decimate” food assistance programs if given the chance.
But even though they know what’s coming, some House Democrats are quietly raising alarms about their lack of plans to push back on the GOP proposals, which are likely to come up during negotiations over the debt limit, federal budget and farm bill.
“We need to be prepared for a showdown on food security — and right now, we’re not ready,” said one House Democrat, who was granted anonymity in order to speak plainly about internal caucus matters.
As POLITICO first reported last year, some Democrats have been particularly concerned about the leadership atop the House Agriculture Committee, which oversees SNAP and other federal food assistance programs. A handful of Democrats have pressed their leaders multiple times to remove top committee Democrat David Scott (D-Ga.) from his post, citing Scott’s health and concerns about his ability to effectively lead the committee. A steady churn of committee staff turnover under Scott has added to Democrats’ worries about their ability to effectively push back on Republicans. So far, leadership has rebuffed their efforts.
SNAP is at risk of devastating cuts – Johnson’s proposed work requirements hike puts millions at risk
Katie Bergh and Dottie Rosenbaum, 3/20/2023, Senior Policy Analyst on the Food Assistance team. Prior to joining the Center, she worked as a Senior Policy Advisor for Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME), where she managed her work as a member of the House Agriculture Committee and House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and related agencies. She holds a B.A. in Biology from Kalamazoo College and an M.P.P. from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Dottie Rosenbaum is the Senior Fellow and Director of Federal SNAP Policy on the Food Assistance team. She lends her deep and expansive knowledge of SNAP and other assistance programs to the development and implementation of the team’s federal agenda. She works closely with other Center teams, federal and state agency partners, and national and state advocacy partners on SNAP policy development, strategy, and technical assistance. Before joining the Center, she was a budget analyst at the Congressional Budget Office., "House Republicans’ Proposals Could Take Food Away From Millions of Low-Income Individuals and Families," Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/house-republicans-proposals-could-take-food-away-from-millions-of-low
House Republicans are planning to release an annual budget resolution soon that will likely call for deep cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). House Republican leaders are pressing for cutting the deficit, refusing to raise revenues, and even calling for more tax cuts, while saying they will shield certain areas of the budget (Medicare, Social Security, and military spending) from cuts. This approach makes Medicaid and SNAP prime targets for proposed cuts.[1] Prominent Republicans have put forward several proposals to cut SNAP (the focus of this analysis) and there is a legislative vehicle to try to enact them: this year’s expected farm bill to reauthorize SNAP and other Agriculture Committee programs.[2] Policymakers should reject these damagin

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