Lawmakers, as they work on the 2023 farm bill, are staking out positions on nutrition and food stamps — the Agriculture Department’s biggest single program and a perennial source of contention.
The draft bill may still be months away, but Republican members of Congress have already said they want to toughen eligibility rules for some recipients, revisit the benefits they provide and provide more flexibility to accommodate indigenous groups' traditional foods. Those decisions are likely to have a ripple effect on school nutrition programs that aren't part of the farm bill but aid low-income families that qualify for food stamps.
Now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the food stamp program feeds about 42.5 million people, and the Congressional Budget Office estimated it will cost about $127 billion in fiscal 2023, down about $21 billion from fiscal 2022.
The 2023 farm bill debate has been unfolding in a series of House and Senate Agriculture committee hearings, and conflicts are already emerging months before the Sept. 30 expiration of the current law .
Rep. Dusty Johnson wants to expand the number of food stamp recipients subject to work requirements and time-limited food benefits by raising the age of people covered by the rules to 65. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack riled up congressional Republicans with a steep increase in benefits provided in fiscal 2022 after a review of the adequacy of the monthly payments to buy nutritious foods and to cope...
STERLING, Ill. (Rockford News First/KWQC) - Following uproar over a decision to euthanize a dog, attorneys for Whiteside County Animal Control Director James Garcia launch an investigation for a p...