Sacramento Head Start Alumni Association

FOOD STAMPS

Nov 21, 2001

Children and families scored a major victory this week, as the Senate
Agriculture Committee, chaired by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), approved
its version of the farm bill with over $6 billion in improvements in the
Food Stamp program over the next ten years. Building on the food stamp
proposals in the Act to Leave No Child Behind, the Harkin farm bill, S.
1628, would restore Food Stamps for legal immigrant children and other
legal immigrants who have been in the U.S. for four years or more. S.
1628 would also simplify the Food Stamp application process and would
liberalize the qualifications, including the standard deduction and
shelter expenses provisions.

There are several difficult steps ahead for the farm bill --
consideration and approval by the full Senate; action by a House-Senate
conference committee to resolve differences between S.1628 and H.R. 2646, the
farm bill approved by the House; and final Congressional approval and
signature by the President. It should be noted that while the food and
nutrition parts of S. 1628 and H.R. 2646 are especially important to low
income children and families, the farm bill is an extremely complex bill
that sets overall federal agricultural subsidy and support polices.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Thank Senator Harkin and members of the Senate
Agriculture Committee for the important Food Stamp improvements in S. 1628.
Contact your Senators and urge them to add their support to the food
stamp provisions in S. 1628. You can call your Senators through the
Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. If you are unsure who your Senators
are, you can find out at http://capwiz.com/cdf/dbq/officials