Policy Focus
On the Other Side of the Cliff
As of press time for this edition of the Bread Newsletter, a
deal had not been reached during the fiscal cliff talks between
President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner.
Regardless of the outcome, the consequences of any deal are
dramatic for our country’s long-term ability to address hunger and poverty. The overall amounts for new revenue and
spending cuts determine the space available in the budget to
fund programs that alleviate hunger and help people move
out of poverty, both in the United States and around the world.
These are multiyear policies, establishing revenue and spending restrictions for the next decade and beyond.
Any budget agreement resulting from the fiscal cliff negotiations would only be an initial framework, laying a path for
deficit reduction. While specific programs are mostly spared
from targeted cuts in an initial deal, programs serving hungry
and poor people become extremely vulnerable as Congress
implements the framework. The actual decisions about which
programs to cut and which programs to fund come in this second phase of implementing deficit reduction.
The programs we anticipate being at risk in this second
phase include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps); the Earned Income Tax
Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC); poverty-focused
development assistance (PFDA); and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children
(WIC). For up-to-date analysis of the effects of the final deal (or
lack thereof) on hungry and poor people in the United States
and abroad, visit www.bread.org.
Programs Remain Funded Through March
Whatever the result of the fiscal cliff negotiations, Congress
passed a continuing resolution in September that funds federal programs through March 27, abiding by the spending
caps established in last year’s Budget Control Act—with most
programs and agencies receiving a 0.6 percent increase. The
resolution also included a clean six-month extension of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
The Farm Bill
The farm bill is not directly affected by the cuts and tax
increases set to trigger at the beginning of this year. This is
significant because the most widely utilized food programs in
the United States are funded through this bill. Every five years,
the farm bill returns for renewal and renegotiation.
Farm programs technically expired Sept. 30, 2012. However, harmful administrative changes did not go into effect
right away. The 2008 farm bill covers all of 2012’s calendar
year crops, which allowed some wiggle room for Congress to
decide on how to move forward.
SNAP will continue to be funded through March as part of
the continuing resolution; however, international food aid programs will not have authority to continue past January. The
last time the farm bill was allowed to expire was 2007 when
the bill expired on Sept. 30 and an extension was not passed
until Dec. 26.
As of press time, a path forward for the farm bill was still
unclear. Agriculture Committee Leadership has been meeting, but they have yet to reach a compromise. House Resolution 760, which rejects cuts to SNAP in the proposed House
Farm Bill (H.R. 6083) has gained over 100 cosponsors, creating hope that anti-hunger political leaders may succeed in
maintaining a circle of protection around that vital program.
Victory in Foreign Assistance Reform
In the waning days of 2012, Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.)—the ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee—introduced the Global Partnerships Act (GPA) of 2012
(H.R. 6644), an attempt to update and modernize U.S. foreign
assistance policy. The bill would effectively replace the outdated Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and offer several key reforms, including increased emphasis on program effectiveness;
strengthened ac countability and oversight mechanisms; greater efficiency by eliminating duplicative programs; improved
transparency; and better connection to private investments.
One key reform in the GPA is greater transparency. In the
final weeks of 2012, Congress was poised to pass the Foreign
Aid Transparency and Accountability Act of 2012 (H.R. 3159),
which standardizes performance and evaluation guidelines for
U.S. foreign assistance programs and makes such information
publicly available. Introduced by Rep. Ted Poe (R-Tex.), this
bill marks a great achievement for Bread and our partners in
the development community who have been pushing for foreign aid reforms.
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