Prepared by the Office of
Congressman George Miller (D-CA)
Fourteen members of
Congress with a combined net worth of up to $124.5 million voted last week to
continue farm subsidies from which they personally benefit while allowing
authorization for nutrition programs for low income individuals and families,
including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), to expire this
year.
These members of Congress—each of them Republican—and their spouses have
collectively received more than $7.2 million in farm subsidies since 1995.
Since 1973, Congress has
always included both farm subsidies and nutrition aid in the Farm Bill, but
after an embarrassing defeat on the House Floor late last month, House
Republican leadership stripped the entire nutrition title from the new Federal
Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act that narrowly passed the House with
only Republican support.
The resulting FARRM Act now
provides $196 billion in farm subsidies, largely to the wealthiest farmers and
large agribusiness firms. In contrast, 47 million
Americans are at risk of
losing access to SNAP benefits if the program isn’t reauthorized, as is the
case under this FARRM Act.
The 14 Republican members
of Congress who voted for the FARRM Act and personally receive government
subsidies have received an average of $515,279 in benefits, according
to a database maintained by the Environmental Working Group.
However, these figures
should be considered a low-end estimate. While commodity, disaster and
conservation assistance programs disclose their recipients, federal law
currently prohibits the names of recipients of crop insurance premium support
from being disclosed. This lack of transparency means that it is impossible to
know whether these and other members of
Congress have received
subsidies from the crop insurance premium support program, or how much. Because
of this reporting loophole, it is possible that, once crop insurance premium
support is taken into account, these 14 members have received considerably more
than the $7.2 million in handouts this report details.
In stark contrast, SNAP,
which each member detailed in this report voted against extending, is limited
to families with an income below the federal poverty line ($19,530 for a family
of three). In fact, the average SNAP household has a gross monthly income of
only $744, and their average monthly SNAP benefit is just $281.
In addition to voting to
continue assistance for themselves and other wealthy farmers while failing to
reauthorize nutrition programs for the poor, each of these 14 members of
Congress voted in favor of the Southerland Amendment, largely credited with
sinking an earlier version (H.R. 1947) of the FARRM Act last month. That
amendment—which
Republicans added to a version of the FARRM Act that would have already made
deep cuts to SNAP and cut eligibility for 2 million Americans—would have completely
gutted SNAP by giving states large financial incentives to kick families off
the program.
It is time for Congress to
enact a farm bill that maintains a strong safety net to help families buy food
and get back on their feet—not one that provides large subsidies to wealthy farmers and
agribusiness while leaving tens of millions of working Americans out in the
cold.
The
following are profiles of the 14 members of Congress who voted to continue
their own farm subsidies while failing to continue nutrition aid for 47 million
Americans.
Member Profiles
Each of the following
members of Congress voted "Yes" on Southerland Amendment to H.R 1947
to Gut SNAP by giving subsidies to states that cut off families’ benefits and voted
"Yes" on H.R. 2642 to provide farm subsidies for themselves while
allowing authorization to expire for nutrition programs including SNAP. Total subsidies do not include any possible
federal payments for crop insurance premium support programs.
Rep. Robert Aderholt
Republican—Alabama 4th District
Total Farm Subsidies
Received: $207,426
Net Worth: $506,019 to $5,815,999
Individuals in Alderholt’s home county, Winston County,
receiving SNAP Benefits: 4,201 (16% of Winston County’s population).
Rep. Blake Farenthold
Republican—Texas 27th District
Total Farm Subsidies
Received: $1,205
Net Worth: $9,659,099 to $38,785,999
Individuals in Farenthold’s home county, Nueces County,
receiving SNAP Benefits: 68,655 (19% of Nueces County’s population).
Rep. Stephen Fincher
Republican—Tennessee 8th District
Total Farm Subsidies
Received: $3,483,824
Net Worth: -$1,149,999 to $204,995
Individuals in Fincher’s home county, Crockett County,
receiving SNAP Benefits: 3,370 (22% of Crockett County’s population).
Rep. Vicky Hartzler
Republican—Missouri 4th District
Total Farm Subsidies
Received: $516,000
Net Worth: $2,218,026 to $13,854,995
Individuals in Hartzler’s home county, Cass County,
receiving SNAP Benefits: 8,664 (9% of Cass County’s population).
Rep. John Kline
Republican—Minnesota 2nd District
Total Farm Subsidies
Received: $6,548
Net Worth: $248,009 to $645,000
Individuals in Kline’s home county, Dakota
County, receiving SNAP Benefits: 23,736 (5% of Dakota County’s population).
Rep. Doug LaMalfa
Republican—California 1st District
Total Farm Subsidies
Received: $1,710,385
Net Worth: $1,268,007 to $5,596,000
Individuals in LaMalfa’s home county, Butte
County, receiving SNAP Benefits: 27,457 (11% of Butte County’s population).
Rep. Tom Latham
Republican—Iowa 3rd District
Total Farm Subsidies
Received: $313,776
Net Worth: $2,315,175 to $7,650,167
Individuals in Latham’s home county, Franklin County,
receiving SNAP Benefits: 1,100 (10% of Franklin County’s population).
Rep. Frank Lucas
Republican—Oklahoma 3rd District
Total Farm Subsidies
Received: $40,613
Net Worth: -$264,990 to $1,059,995
Individuals in Lucas’s home county, Roger Mills County,
receiving SNAP Benefits: 248 (6% of Roger Mills County’s population).
Rep. Cynthia Lummis
Republican—Wyoming At-Large
Total Farm Subsidies
Received: $14,289
Net Worth: $7,252,036 to $30,584,999
Individuals in Lummis’s home county, Laramie County,
receiving SNAP Benefits: 5,817 (7% of Laramie County’s population).
Rep. Randy Neugebauer
Republican—Texas 18th District
Total Farm Subsidies
Received: $4,321
Net Worth: $6,560,080 to $19,129,998
Individuals in Neugebauer’s home county, Lubbock County,
receiving SNAP Benefits: 46,408 (16% of Lubbock County’s population).
Rep. Kristi Noem
Republican—South Dakota At-Large
Total Farm Subsidies
Received: $503,751
Net Worth: -$464,992 to $674,999
Individuals in Noem’s home county, Hamlin
County, receiving SNAP Benefits: 462 (7% of Hamlin County’s population).
Rep. Marlin Stutzman
Republican—Indiana 3rd District
Total Farm Subsidies
Received: $196,268
Net Worth: $14,019 to $1,082,995
Individuals in Stutzman’s home county, Lagrange County,
receiving SNAP Benefits: 2,116 (5% of Lagrange County’s population).
Rep. Mac Thornberry
Republican—Texas 13th District
Total Farm Subsidies
Received: $29,774
Net Worth: $241,007 to $580,000
Individuals in Thornberry’s home county, Potter County,
receiving SNAP Benefits: 28,779 (23% of Potter County’s population).
Rep. David Valadao
Republican—California 21st District
Total Farm Subsidies
Received: $185,724
Net Worth: -$30,099,998 to -$1,150,005
Individuals in Valadao’s home county, Kings
County, receiving SNAP Benefits: 21,938 (13% of Kings County’s population).
All
data on farm subsidies received by members of Congress and their spouses is
based on analyses by the Environmental Working Group, which can be found at http://www.ewg.org/release/members-congress-received-238k-farmsubsidies
and http://www.ewg.org/news/news-releases/2012/06/28/taxpayerspaid61-million-farm-subsidies-members-congress-families.
All
data on members’ net worth is based on information provided in
the Center for Responsive Politics’ reporting
of lawmakers’ net worth in 2011, which can be found at http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/overview.php?type=W&year=2011.
All
data on SNAP recipients by county comes from the USDA Economic Research Service’s SNAP Time Series Data and can be accessed through http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/map_of_the_week/2013/04/food_stamp_recipients_by_county_an_interactive_tool_showing_local_snap_data.html.
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