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SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

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The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

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Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Proposed Budget Calls for Deep Cuts to Food Program

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Wednesday, February 14, 2018   

NEW YORK – The budget proposed by President Donald Trump on Monday would slash funding for food assistance for low-income Americans.

Under the Trump budget proposal, the U.S. Department of Agriculture would substitute packages of "shelf-stable" foods, such as pasta, cereal and canned goods, for about half of the value of the SNAP benefits.

Hunger Free America CEO Joel Berg said that, combined with other program changes, would reduce the overall SNAP budget by $213 billion over ten years – $20 billion more than Trump proposed cutting it last year.

"At the same time, it would create a massive new government bureaucracy to create what the Trump administration has said is some sort of 'Blue Apron' program for low-income people," noted Berg.

The administration has said supplying packages of government-selected foods would reduce costs through bulk purchasing.

The recent bipartisan budget agreement makes passage of the SNAP cuts unlikely. Still, Berg is concerned that the proposal could serve as an opening for Congress to reduce funding for the food program by a smaller amount.

"My worry is Congress will say, 'Well, we're not going along with the worst of the Trump cuts, but we are still going to do some cuts,' which should be absolutely unacceptable given that these programs [have] already been cut twice in a massive level over the last decade," he said.

He pointed out that 41-million Americans, including 2-million New Yorkers, struggle against hunger every day. In two weeks, he said, Hunger Free America will travel to Washington, D.C., with low-income people and other hunger-fighting advocacy groups to ask Congress to spare SNAP from any further budget cuts.

"These programs need to be increased," Berg stated. "We need to end hunger in America – not create a major hunger crisis to pay for tax cuts for the mega-rich."



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