Bill helps protect American families from going hungry

Sen. Norm Coleman

The Hill

Despite having the world’s safest, most abundant and affordable food supply in the world — in large part due to a strong farm safety net — many hardworking families across the nation are finding it increasingly difficult to put food on the table each night. The housing downturn, rising unemployment and a slowdown in the economy combined with higher energy costs, which are translating into higher food costs, mean that more Americans are having to make tough choices between feeding their families and paying other basic expenses. For our low-income families, the toll this takes each time they go to the grocery store is extremely difficult — and frightening.
 

Those of us in Congress have a responsibility to protect the most vulnerable among us from food insecurity. Both the House and Senate have passed farm bill reauthorizations that will provide much-needed policy changes and funding increases for the nation’s strained nutrition programs. Though negotiations between the House and Senate to forge a final farm bill have been lengthy, it is imperative that we give these talks a chance to succeed — a long-term extension of current policy is no substitute for a new farm bill. Great gains were made in the House and Senate bills to improve the nutrition safety net, and in this time of need we must not allow those reforms to fall by the wayside.