Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA FY 2023

House Appropriations Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA FY 2023, May 31, 2022

House Appropriations Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA FY 2022, June 1, 2021

FY 2023

This testimony on SNAP was also provided to Labor, HHS, Education. It concerns my personal welfare as an SSDI beneficiary, as well as for retirees. The need for an immediate COLA for Social Security recipients is obvious and it would save money in the short and long runs, as would increasing the minimum wage and thereby increasing both funding and the annual COLA for benefits due to increased inflation because of such an increase.

I found out last week that I am eligible for Food Stamps, so I applied. My usual benefit is now $20 per month. It had been $14 when I first received SSDI. I did not bother to use the benefits. When the pandemic increase in benefits to $250 was enacted in Maryland, I did not collect the dots on my personal eligibility. I am no longer scraping by. Those retirees and the disabled who have not known that the new benefit applied to them are still hungry. Social Security needs to let them know to apply in the short run (or Members should do so in a franked correspondence). In the long-run - which may be in months - likely during the coming fiscal year - COLA rules must be changed so that the average retiree is no longer eligible for SNAP. That they are is scandalous. It is also fiscally stupid.

Applying for benefits is not easy. Because I have an MPA, it was not hard for me. For others, it is daunting. It is also not cost efficient for every eligible retiree or disability beneficiary to do so when benefits can simply be increased by increasing the minimum wage and rebasing benefits. Until the latter is accomplished, waiting for seniors and the disabled to apply is penny-wise and pound foolish. This will also vastly decrease workloads at the state and local levels. Even and especially in Red States.

LET ME SHOUT THAT SNAP MONEY IS FEDERAL, SO THAT PROVIDING MORE MONEY TO RETIREES, THE DISABLED (AS WELL AS STIPENDS TO STUDENTS IN ESL, GED, APPRENTICESHIP AND ASSOCIATES DEGREE PROGRAMS) WOULD ALLOW HUGE REDUCTIONS IN SNAP SPENDING, AS WOULD A HIGHER CHILD TAX CREDIT - ADJUSTED TO MEDIAN INCOME LEVELS.

Last year, I recommended that the FDA should both self-support with fees and licenses (which would also fund NIH and NSF research grants). NIH should also retain ownership of orphan drugs, with their distribution funded by contract to  big Pharma. I have not changed my mind and the latest round of advertising from PhARMA shows that the topic is still current.

Last year, I suggested that the Foreign Agricultural Service work more for overseas farmers and less for domestic agriculture and thus be transferred to the Agency for International Development. I stand by the prior but doubt that the former will occur. In this case, please increase the FAS to provide technical assistance on setting up land grant universities to attract their best farmers rather than sending them here on a path to H-1B status and eventual citizenship. Such schools should include how to set up both commodities futures operations and English and American style land ownership (both with technical assistance from FAS).

Committee Reports and the Budget Process Video

The vast majority of USDA activities can be attributed to the state and region in which they are performed, including SNAP, packers and stockyards, food safety, animal and plant health, soil conservation, school nutrition and extension services. Headquarters services, the Agricultural Research Service and FDA activities would not be assigned to a region because they serve all regions.

Explanatory material would address any imbalances in spending (for example, that the South and Midwest have higher expenditures in packing and stockyards.

FY 2022

On the Agricultural Research Service, undo damage of the last 4 years and give bonuses for both reemployment, moving and battle pay (which could be a government-wide benefit)..

The FDA should both self-support with fees and fund research with licenses for using innovations funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. There is no justification for big Pharma to grow wealthy based on government funded science. The United States should retain the rights to license the production of orphan drugs, letting contracts rather than encouraging entrepreneurship. The prices for recouping private investment is simply too high, which drives up both insurance and drug costs for the public. If there was ever justification for public action, this is it.

The Foreign Agricultural Service is another matter. It is hardly slanderous to note that some of its activities are counter-productive when food is delivered just prior to harvest, thus reducing the price paid to local farmers. The extent to which this occurs is economic warfare. American farmers receive plenty of subsidies without activities that hurt the ability of developing nations to feed themselves. It would be better to send nothing than to continue such sabotage, even if it is unintentional. For this reason, the administration should be transferred to the Agency for International Development. 

Any food distribution should go to overseas farmers, not to governments or food processors. Additionally, processed foods should not be delivered at all, especially not those foods which have made this nation obese. If anything, subsidies which are paid to American agriculture that contribute to our ill-health should be scaled down and eventually eliminated.

This brings us to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funding. For some people, it is a lifeline, not subsistence.  Individuals without children, though not the intended beneficiaries, are greatly helped. With the advent of higher refundable child tax credits, families will need less assistance. Higher minimum wages should also be enacted (which is the job of other committees). Until then, benefits must go up and stay up for a longer period of time. 

Diets for the disabled and senior citizens, as well as current program participants, are heavier on carbohydrate than is healthy. COVID-19 related inflation (with the economy deliberately idled while cash benefits are provided, as is necessary) is making people hungry, especially those of us who cannot work. The lack of cash benefits within SNAP make buying such essentials as bathroom tissue difficult, leading some to sell their cards at 50 cents on the dollar.

I understand that SNAP was cut so that people who left TANF could not simply shift benefits to SNAP. However, everyone is not eligible, nor do they need TANF. I already possess a Master of Public Administration degree, yet am unable to work. While SSDI provides some assistance, neither SSDI nor OASI are adequate.

There is a toxic ideology in some circles that hunger is an incentive for self-improvement or work. This is decidedly not true. Give me more money and I might consider seeking an online doctorate. I certainly cannot do anything of the kind on current benefits, nor am I in any position to obtain student loans for this purpose. I would never be able to pay them back in any possible career resulting from further education. This does not mean that I should spend the last week (or two) of every month emptying my refrigerator and cupboards. They should not be bare at any time. While increasing SSDI benefits is the job of the Ways and Means and Finance Committees, having access to Food Stamps, especially those which provide an adequate supplement, are necessary for the vast majority of retirees at current benefit levels. Double the appropriation and that will not be so.

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/5nSb5nql-H0