Connolly Votes Against Farm Bill, Citing SNAP Program Cuts and Bloated Taxpayer Handouts to Agribusiness & Special Interests

WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 -- Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, D-Va. (11th CD), issued the following news release:

Congressman Gerry Connolly voted against the Farm bill in the House Wednesday, citing the hypocrisy of providing excessive taxpayer-subsidized payments to agribusiness, while cutting the SNAP program to help feed low-income families.

"At a time when families are still struggling to make ends meet in the aftermath of the Great Recession it is shameful that Republicans in Congress continue to chip away at our nation's safety net for the weakest among us, while feathering the nests of agribusiness with millions upon millions of dollars in crop subsidies, export support programs, and other handouts," Connolly said.

"It is blatant hypocrisy that the recipients of the farm bill's taxpayer-funded largesse - some of them the very same Tea Party Republicans who rail against government spending - view themselves as givers, while they characterize as takers the single mothers with kids, who receive nutrition assistance to put food on the table," Connolly said.

"They see no contradiction in their position of wanting the American taxpayer to minimize their risk and guarantee them an income while telling those at risk of hunger that they are on their own," Connolly said. "It is a Dickensian world view that defies reason."

"Who are the real takers here? Poor babies and their mothers trying to put food on the table? Or those who pocket millions of dollars in crop subsidies and insurance payments and tax credits and accelerated equipment depreciation and federally-funded soil and crop R&D, and then have the gall to vote to cut nutrition programs and characterize them as excessive federal spending," Connolly asked.

Connolly said the Farm bill contained some good provisions on the environment and other critical issues. "I wish I could have found my way clear to support the bill, but there were too many serious pitfalls that will cause us plenty of grief over the 5-year lifespan of this bill," he said.

"I refuse to accept this false choice. Families shouldn't be forced to worry about how they will put food on the table in order to foot the bill for these agricultural handouts," he said.

"It's time the House majority gets serious about reforming costly farm subsidies, as the Senate did in the Farm bill it passed, and stop targeting the most vulnerable among us," the Virginia Congressman said.

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