Liberals vow to back state aid, but restore food-stamp funding

Liberal Democrats said they will vote for a $26.1 billion state
aid bill when the House reconvenes this week but are committed to restoring the
food-stamps program funding that is being used to pay for it.

The jobs measure, which passed the Senate on Thursday,
includes $10 billion for states and local governments to help them stave off
teacher cutbacks, and another $16.1 billion to help states with their Medicaid
obligations.

{mosads}Nearly half of the state aid bill’s cost is being offset by
taking $12 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the official name for the food-stamps program. The bill finds those savings by
ending in 2014 a stimulus program that has increased food-stamp
levels.

While House Democrats say they’ll support the jobs measure, liberal members
said they’re doing so over qualms about using funds that would otherwise go to
people who need the help.

“This is a bitter pill to swallow,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro
(D-Conn.) said in a statement to The Hill. “I fought very hard for the
food assistance money in the Recovery Act and the fact is that participation in
the food stamps program has jumped dramatically with the economic crisis, from
31.1 million persons to 38.2 million just in one year.

“But I know that states across the nation and my own
state of Connecticut also desperately need these resources to save jobs and
avoid draconian cuts to essential services for low income families,” she
added. “As you can imagine, for me personally, it’s like ‘Sophie’s
Choice.’ “

DeLauro oversees annual spending on the food-stamps program
as chairwoman of the House Appropriations subcommittee for
agriculture. Asked if she would try to restore the food-stamps money in
future legislation, DeLauro said, “Yes, absolutely, I will be fighting for
these funds.”

Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus have similar
concerns. 

“But the good news is that there is time to fix
it,” said Michael Mershon, a spokesman for Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.).
“And he is considering legislation to restore the cuts while finding
another offset.”

House Democratic leaders had resisted earlier suggestions by
the Obama administration to redirect food-stamp money to the jobs bill. The
White House had noted that the 13.6 percent stimulus increase in food stamps
was initially designed to last until 2014. It was going to last until 2018
because of unexpectedly low food prices during the recession.

“Their line of argument was, well, the cost of food
relative to what we thought it would be has come down, so people on food stamps
are getting a pretty good deal in comparison to what we thought they were going
to get,” House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) said in a Fiscal Times interview last month. 

“Well, isn’t that nice,” Obey said. “Some poor
bastard is going to get a break for a change.”

Obey has yet to weigh in on the Senate jobs bill. He ushered
a similar bill through the House last month that was paid for partly with cuts
to stimulus programs. Senate Democrats and the White House rejected those cuts
because they would have affected President Obama’s education reform efforts.

Senate Democrats, who had struggled for weeks to win the
necessary Republican votes for the jobs bill, dismissed any suggestion that they
were cutting food-stamp money.

“The bigger point is that there was a bump in food
stamps that was given in the economic recovery package that will be there in
2014,” said Regan LaChapelle, a spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

The bill, which passed in the Senate with just two GOP
votes, could save about 300,000 jobs at a time when the unemployment rate has
been stuck at 9.5 percent for two months, Democrats have argued.