For Immediate Release
Media Contact: Caitlin Cook (304) 543-4879
(Charleston, WV) – Following House and Senate leaders’ announcement of an agreement on the 2018 farm bill, Kelly Allen, Policy Outreach Coordinator at the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, along with partners, released the following statement:
“The farm bill agreement announced this week is the right step forward for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), our nation’s most effective anti-hunger program. Protecting and strengthening SNAP is key to the future of West Virginia communities, and we’re pleased to see lawmakers rejected the partisan House-passed bill’s proposals to take away food assistance from those in need through cuts and harmful changes.
The final farm bill agreement ensures that SNAP will continue to help feed children and their parents, seniors, people with disabilities, and working people with low pay and inconsistent hours who struggle to make ends meet. That includes 1 in 5 people right here in West Virginia.
No compromise is perfect, but this bill ensures that West Virginians will still be able to use SNAP to feed themselves and their families.
“Our soup kitchen and food pantry would not have been able to make up for the House bill’s cuts and harmful changes to SNAP. We are relieved that this farm bill agreement rejected that damaging approach. As we enter the holiday season, that is something we can all celebrate,” Tara Martinez, Manna Meal Inc. Executive Director said.
We commend House and Senate negotiators for working together, across party lines, to continue the bipartisan tradition of protecting food assistance for West Virginians and all Americans.”
The West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy is a public policy research organization that is nonpartisan, nonprofit, and statewide. The Center focuses on how policy decisions affect all West Virginians, especially low- and moderate-income families.
