Thread: Senate Democrats block effort to end USDA/Mexico food stamp promotion partnership

Senate Democrats block effort to end USDA/Mexico food stamp promotion partnership

03/15/2013

Caroline May
Political Reporter

During the Senate budget committee’s Thursday markup of the Senate budget resolution, Democrats prevented an effort to block funds for the Agriculture Department’s “partnership” with the Mexican government, which is aimed at promoting nutrition assistance programs among Mexican Americans, Mexican nationals and migrant communities in America.

In a party-line 12 to 10 vote, the Democrats on the committee rejected a proposal to prevent funding for such endeavors from ranking member Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions, who has spoken out against the program in recent months.

“Contrary to sound policy, the United States is spending money advertising food stamp benefits in foreign consulates,” Session’s staff said in a Thursday evening press release. “This amendment would prohibit any funds from being spent on this controversial promotion campaign.”

Until recently, the USDA’s partnership was relatively unknown, with only a few mentions of it in public agency materials.

(RELATED: USDA teams up with Mexico to boost food stamp participation)

“USDA and the government of Mexico have entered into a partnership to help educate eligible Mexican nationals living in the United States about available nutrition assistance,” the USDA explains in a brief paragraph on its “Reaching Low-Income Hispanics With Nutrition Assistance” Web page. “Mexico will help disseminate this information through its embassy and network of approximately 50 consular offices.”

Last fall, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack defended the program in a letter to Sessions, explaining that the partnership with the foreign government was one of many efforts to reduce hunger in America.

“The Mexico-U.S. Partnership for Nutrition Assistance Initiative is just one of a wide range of USDA partnership activities intended to promote awareness of nutrition assistance among those who need benefits and meet all program requirements under current law,” Vilsack wrote to Sessions.

In that letter, Vilack revealed that USDA personnel had met with Mexican government officials to promote nutrition initiatives more than 150 times since the program’s inception in 2004, under the Bush administration.

A budget committee aide told The Daily Caller that the markup vote should make Americans more skeptical of Democratic immigration proposals.

“Today’s vote underscores that rushing headfirst into an amnesty deal with Washington Democrats will explode the deficit,” the aide said. “All Americans should be on high alert.”

A number of other Republican amendments — including those aimed at balancing the budget in 10 years, eliminating the plan’s tax increases, and curtailing welfare expansion and the growth of government — also failed Thursday.

The markup was the committee’s first budget markup in four years under Democratic leadership.

The Democrat’s 10-year budget blueprint passed along party lines Thursday, and is expected on the Senate floor next week, according to the Associated Press.

Read more: Senate Democrats block effort to end USDA/Mexico food stamp promotion partnership | The Daily Caller

Dems Vote To Fund Food Stamp Promotions On Mexican Soil
LORI BOXER

03/16/2013



Try he did, but Senator Jeff Sessions couldn’t stop the Dem Senators on the Budget Committee from voting unanimously to continue to use OUR HARD-EARNED TAXPAYER DOLLARS to promote the U.S. food stamps program in Mexico.

This type of spending should offend ALL taxpayers of this country, regardless of party … period. EVERYONE should be sick of treating Mexico as part of this country and illegal aliens as citizens. When it comes to our rights and our tax dollars, they are ‘entitled’ to NEITHER.

Since when is it the responsibility of the American taxpayer to finance Mexico. We already send billions of dollars annually to them, and this is merely a ploy for Obama to shore up the Mexican vote.

Dems Vote To Fund Food Stamp Promotions On Mexican Soil | The Black Sphere

Sessions presses USDA for more info on non-citizen food stamp use, participation rates

03/17/2013

Caroline May


After an effort to defund the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food stamp outreach partnership with the Mexican government went down in committee Thursday, Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions continued to press the agency for more information about non-citizen participation in the food stamp program.

In a Friday letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack obtained by The Daily Caller, Sessions — who has been exchanging letters with Vilsack about USDA’s partnership with Mexico since last summer — requested additional information about the people the USDA has been enrolling in nutrition assistance programs and the agency’s program goals.

Last month, in a letter recently obtained by TheDC, Vilsack revealed that the share of overall Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamp, benefits going to legal non-citizens has accounted for between 3.5–4.0 percent of the total caseload since 2004.
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Read more: Non-citizens on food stamps: Sen. Sessions wants answers | The Daily Caller