No Nebraskan should have to go hungry. But, this week the House of Representatives will introduce a bill that would slash $40 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps), which helps nearly 180,000 people in Nebraska – a large proportion of them children – get enough to eat.
We are urging you to call your congressman and ask them to oppose the “Nutrition Reform and Opportunity Act,” which will have devastating consequences for thousands of hard-working Nebraskans who utilize SNAP to help put food on the table.
Call toll-free at 866-456-8824 to be connected with your congressman and ask them to vote “NO” on the Nutrition Reform and Opportunity Act.
The inappropriately benign title of the bill masks its damaging effects. The House’s bill would deny SNAP to at least 4 million to 6 million low-income people nationwide including many seniors and children in low-income families. This includes:
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2 million to 4 million poor, unemployed, childless adults who live in areas of high unemployment.
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1.8 million people, mostly low-income working families and low-income seniors, who have gross incomes slightly above the federal SNAP limits but have little to no disposable income available to spend on food and other needs, often because of child-care or housing costs.
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Around 210,000 children in these families who would lose free school meals.
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Other poor, unemployed parents who want to work but cannot find a job or an opening in a training program — along with their children, other than infants.
The cuts in this bill, which was called “a national embarrassment” by the New York Times, will take food off the table of thousands of Nebraska’s working families, children, and those struggling to find work as we come out of the recession.
Please call your congressman at 866-456-8824 and ask them to oppose the “Nutrition Reform and Opportunity Act.”