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12/12/2005
SENATE DEMOCRATS CALL ON BUSH TO CLARIFY POSITION ON FOOD STAMPS ELIGIBILITY
Washington, DC – Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, Senator Tom
Harkin, Ranking Member in the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and
Forestry today released the following letter urging President Bush to
clarify his position on food stamp eligibility for legal immigrants. In
2002 the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act successfully restored
food stamp eligibility to legal immigrants who had paid taxes and
resided in the United States for at least five years. President Bush
supported restoring these benefits then, but he has remained silent
now, while the House of Representatives passes a budget reconciliation
bill that significantly restricts food stamp eligibility for legal
immigrants.
The text of the letter follows below:
December 12, 2005
The Honorable George W. Bush
President of the United States
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
As work continues in Congress on budget reconciliation legislation, we
write to urge that you and your administration make a clear statement
opposing any reductions to food assistance for low income Americans. We
are requesting this clarification because initial indications from your
administration regarding this issue are unclear and raise questions
about whether your current position is consistent with your previous
views.
On November 17, the Office of Management and Budget released the
Statement of Administration Policy regarding H.R.4241, the House budget
reconciliation measure, which we take to be a comprehensive statement
of your views on that bill. Notably missing from the Statement of
Administration Policy is any objection to a provision in the House bill
that would change existing law and deny federal food assistance (food
stamps) to certain low-income legal immigrant Americans who have
resided in our country for more than five years. The House bill would
set the minimum residency requirement for this assistance at seven
years and thereby deny food assistance to some 70,000 low-income
Americans. This change in the law would seriously erode policy you have
strongly supported in the past.
In large measure because of your vocal backing, the 2002 farm bill
included provisions to ameliorate the harshest remaining aspects of a
prohibition against food stamp benefits for legal immigrant Americans
adopted in 1996. Previous legislation had restored eligibility for
these benefits to legal immigrants who are elderly, children, disabled
or asylum seekers and meet all the other eligibility requirements, but
it left in place the total prohibition as to individuals outside these
categories. With strong bipartisan support, the farm bill changed the
law as you had called for to remove the prohibition on food stamp
benefits for legal immigrant Americans who have legally resided in the
United States for not less than five years.
As you are aware, in order to receive this assistance, the individual
or family must meet all of the usual eligibility criteria applicable to
any American, such as lack of income, meeting work requirements or
having responsibility for children. Indeed, the vast majority of the
benefit from the farm bill’s provision has gone to low-income working
families with children. You stated the justification for this change in
the law very well when you signed the farm bill: “It means that you can
have a head of a family who’s been working hard, been here for five
years, been a part of the economy, been legally working. And that
person falls on hard times, our government should help them with food
stamps.”
Given your strong prior support for this policy, you can understand why
we are puzzled that the Statement of Administration Policy on H.R.4241
omits any statement of opposition to reversing policy that you strongly
supported in the 2002 farm bill.
In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, our nation’s attention
was riveted – to a greater degree perhaps than any time in decades – on
the crushing hardships and indignities that confront millions of
low-income Americans on a daily basis. We Americans were appalled by
images reminding us that fellow citizens endure such circumstances here
in our own country. You spoke eloquently about our responsibility to
help Americans in need: “We have a duty to confront this poverty with
bold action. So let us restore all that we have cherished from
yesterday, and let us rise above the legacy of inequality.” We firmly
believe in the moral vision you expressed with those words and that
reductions in food assistance to low-income Americans as being
considered in budget reconciliation legislation is completely
inconsistent with that vision.
For these reasons, we urge you publicly to inform Congressional leaders
working on the budget reconciliation measure that you oppose any
erosion or reversal of your policy enacted in the 2002 farm bill
restoring eligibility for food stamp benefits to certain legal
immigrant Americans, as well as any other reductions in food assistance
to low-income Americans. Given the congressional timetable, it is
critical that you take such action without delay.
We are grateful for your attention and earliest response to this very serious matter.
Sincerely yours,
Harry Reid
Democratic Leader
Tom Harkin Ranking Democratic Member
Commmittee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry
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