US Catholic Bishops Send Letter to Congress Concerning the 2023 Farm Bill “Hunger is criminal, food is an inalienable right.”


The USCCB, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Charities USA, Catholic Rural Life, and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul have sent a joint letter to congress concerning the 2023 Farm Bill, with concerns over rising food costs. Here are some highlights from the Letter (link to full text at bottom):

Dear Chairwoman Stabenow, Ranking Member Boozman, Chairman Thompson, and Ranking Member Scott:

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Charities USA, Catholic Rural Life, and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul are committed to ending hunger, both domestically and worldwide. In the words of Pope Francis, “Hunger is criminal, food is an inalienable right.”1 As you consider provisions to include in the 2023 Farm Bill, we wish to offer you some guiding principles and policy priorities in addressing and alleviating hunger. 

The cost of food has increased significantly due to inflation.  This puts particular stress on the poorest families to get enough to eat and be healthy.  In this environment, nutrition programs that support the basic right to food should be strengthened, not weakened. 

In this year’s Farm Bill, we encourage you to prioritize sufficient funding of programs that feed hungry families, both here and abroad, while opposing efforts to weaken the efficacy of or access to these programs. We ask you to provide a safety net for farmers and continue a reasonable amount of support for our commodity and dairy farmers, prioritizing vulnerable farmers and small and moderate-sized family farms. We urge you to help rural communities by encouraging rural development and promoting the culture and well-being of rural America.  We also recommend that you promote sustainable stewardship of the land. 

As you deliberate on how best to proceed with the 2023 Farm Bill, we submit to you the following principles and areas that should be prioritized:2

Domestic Hunger and Nutrition: Food is a basic need and a human right.  Food production and distribution are critical national concerns.  The most recent reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture indicate that nearly 34 million Americans, adults and children, lived in food-insecure households in 2021.  This urgent need must be addressed, and funding for programs that feed hungry families must be prioritized.  The following programs and measures are critical to meeting the needs of hungry people.

  • The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helped feed more than 41 million Americans in 2021 and lifted nearly 3 million out of poverty.  It is responsive to increased and decreased periods of need and continues to have one of the lowest fraud rates for federal programs.  SNAP should be strengthened through updates to calculations that account for rising food prices, improvement to the standard medical deduction, elimination of the cap on the Excess Shelter Deduction, and increased benefits for households with young children.  Additional funding would be helpful for SNAP Employment and Training as well as SNAP Education. 
  • We also ask you to consider expanding SNAP eligibility in the following ways: improve the Asset Limit to incentivize building savings, allow states to use State Median Income (SMI) rather than the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) to determine eligibility, and raise income eligibility above the current 130% FPL to a reasonable measure based on inflation.  All U.S. territories should participate in SNAP and be brought into parity with the states.3 State flexibility around waiving or scaling back work requirements should be preserved given present and future economic uncertainties, and the three-month time limit for Able Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWDs) should be eliminated.  Furthermore, it’s unconscionable that any members of the armed services and their families should have food security issues, and access should be improved for military families.  Access should also be improved for students, lawfully present immigrants and refugees, and seniors.  Formerly incarcerated individuals should be able to access SNAP.  We support finding ways for greater self-governance and food sovereignty for Tribal Nations.  SNAP outreach and enrollment can also be improved, for example, through a single point of entry, pre-approval for those affected by disasters, and technological assistance for states. 
  • The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) should be strengthened through additional mandatory funding, allowing the Department of Agriculture to retain the authority to purchase bonus commodities in times of high need and low prices, increasing support for the Farm to Food Bank program without the state match requirement, and supporting policies to make food donation easier.  
  • We ask you to increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables through programs such as the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Incentive Program (SFMNP), the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP), and through infrastructure support to food banks for refrigeration and distribution of fresh produce. 

International Food Security and Development: We appreciate the Committee’s steadfast support for international food assistance programs, including Food for Peace, McGovern-Dole, Food for Progress, and the Farmer-to-Farmer programs, in addition to the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust. These programs keep famine at bay, improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers so they can feed their families, help school children excel in their studies, and leverage the expertise of American farming volunteers to support food security outcomes. 

Now is a critical time to hear both the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth, to consider the needs of the hungry, of underserved farmers, and of rural communities.  We look forward to working with you as you shape the 2023 Farm Bill. 

Signing the Letter were: 

Most Rev. Borys Gudziak                                           
Archbishop of Ukrainian Catholic                               
Archeparchy of Philadelphia
Chair, Committee on International Justice and Peace  

Most Rev. David J. Malloy
Bishop of Rockford
Chair, Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development                                              

Mr. Sean Callahan 
President
Catholic Relief Services                                                       

Sr. Donna Markham, OP, PhD
President and CEO
Catholic Charities, USA

Mr. James Ennis
Executive Director
Catholic Rural Life                                                        

Mr. Ralph Middlecamp
President
National Council of the United States Society of St. Vincent de Paul


FULL TEXT Source: https://www.usccb.org/resources/letter-congress-regarding-fy-2023-farm-bill-april-24-2023

Comments

Post a Comment