Peter Roskam, George Bush Attempt to Block Increased Funding for Food Aid to Poor

The House voted overwhelmingly last week (5/14) in favor of the long-awaited Farm Bill which included substantial improvements in funding of food programs to help the poor.

Among the food program provisions are improvements to the food stamp program:

• Increasing the $10 minimum monthly benefit (unchanged for 30 years) to $14, and indexing it for inflation
• Increasing and indexing the standard deduction for households of three or fewer
• Removing the cap on the deductible amount of child care expenses in eligible households
• Indexing the food stamp household asset limits ($2,000; $3,000 for households with elderly or
disabled), which have gone unchanged for decades
• Allowing more families to save without penalty by excluding education savings and tax-preferred
retirement accounts from food stamp asset limits.

In my opinion any President or Congressman who would oppose these modest provisions for the poor is without heart and without conscience. Peter Roskam voted against them. President Bush then vetoed them today. Then Roskam voted against them again.

There has been a bit of a snafu regarding the veto and the veto override today. It seems that a clerical error resulted in an incomplete copy of the bill being sent to the President so it seems the exercise will have to be repeated. That gives Roskam a chance to vote again and redeem himself. Please call him and ask him to quit being a creep and vote to help our brothers and sisters who are hungry. Roskam can be reached at his Washington office at (202) 225-4561 or in Bloomingdale at (630) 893-9670.

Then go and read Ellen of the Tenth’s post on the farm bill vote. She “scooped” my usual sources and I first learned about the vote last week from her blog. Ellen shares some insight on what its like to depend on food stamps.