Dear Pendejo POTUS — paper towels have no nutritional value.
The grifting, bloated, well-fed Trump Administration has stated that additional food aid for Puerto Rico is “excessive and unnecessary.” As you eat your breakfast, lunch or dinner today — give a thought for 1.4 million of our fellow citizens in Puerto Rico who will be going without adequate food unless the Senate approves funds for the Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP). Pick up your phone and call your Senator.
xThe White House calls food stamp funds for Puerto Rico "excessive and unnecessary" https://t.co/08cvikPxwv
— Salon (@Salon) January 23, 2019The White House is all about providing piles of fast food to elite college athletes, but when it comes to funding Puerto Rico’s post-hurricane food stamp program, it’s not feeling so generous.
On Wednesday, the Trump administration released a statement officially opposing an additional $600 million in post-hurricane Nutritional Assistance Program (NAP) —the island’s version of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), better known as food stamps — calling the funding “excessive and unnecessary.” The news comes after reports that Trump didn’t want a single dollar going to the disaster-stricken island.
The White House calls food stamp funds for Puerto Rico ‘excessive and unnecessary’
Puerto Rico already receives fewer federal resources to support low-income families through NAP than it would under SNAP, even though its poverty rate is over three times the national average and its cost of living exceeds many other areas of the country, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The extra NAP funding would have helped an estimated 100,000 impoverished Puerto Rican families meet their nutritional needs. (NAP is operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture which has been shut down for nearly a month.)
“There is no indication that households need ongoing support at this time or that Puerto Rico requires additional time to return to normal NAP operations,” said the official White House statement.
The news was met with outrage from Puerto Rico’s governor, Ricardo Rosselló, who requested additional disaster relief funding last year, citing the island’s “inability to provide food security to those in need.” Rosselló took to social media on Thursday to address President Trump directly, calling for a meeting “so I can correct the ill-informed advice and disconcerting notions you are getting on Puerto Rico, particularly on the NAP program which provides much needed nutritional assistance to over 1 million US citizens living in Puerto Rico.”
x1.4M people in Puerto Rico face deep cuts in food assistance, or risk losing it completely, if the federal government doesn't provide funding for the Nutrition Assistance Program — expected to run out of money next month.My latest â¦@NBCLatinoâ© ⬇︠https://t.co/SpkqSKbbgw
— Nicole Acevedo (@Nicolemarie_A) February 6, 20191.4 million Puerto Ricans face deep cuts in food aid without federal action
Nearly a million and half people in Puerto Rico face deep cuts in food assistance, or losing it completely, if the federal government doesn't provide funding for the Nutrition Assistance Program, which is expected to run out of money on the island next month.
According to an analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research and policy institute, 1.3 million people would experience average benefit cuts of more than a third if Congress does not approve a block grant for the Nutrition Assistance Program, or NAP, which is the U.S. territory's version of SNAP or food stamps. About 100,00 people would lose their benefits altogether.
Unlike SNAP benefits in the 50 states, Puerto Rico’s NAP is a block grant that cannot be adjusted once it is approved, even during times of disaster or increased need.
Even though Congress provided $1.27 billion to the program in response to Hurricane Maria, that money is expected to run out in March.
In November, Puerto Rico's governor, Ricardo Rosselló, asked Congress for $600 million in disaster NAP funding to keep the program running for another six months.
The House approved the governor’s request in January.
Without more federal funds, 1.4 million Puerto Ricans will face food aid cuts, study finds
"This isn't money that Puerto Rico is using for some vanity project. It's not like a shiny new terminal at an airport. It's literally money for the most basic of needs — which in this case is food," Javier Balmaceda, a senior policy analyst at the CBPP and the analysis' author, told CBS News. The popular multi-billion dollar program operated by the USDA provides supplemental income to hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans so they can meet their nutritional needs. Unlike SNAP, funding for NAP can't expand to meet increased demand. Instead, it is funded through an annual federal block grant of about $2 billion.
In October 2017, President Trump and Congress approved nearly $1.27 billion in additional NAP funding to help meet increased demand for food benefits following the devastation caused by hurricanes Irma and Maria. In recent months, however, Gov. Ricardo Rosselló and other Puerto Rican officials have lobbied Congress and the White House for more disaster aid funding for NAP. Based on his analysis, Balmaceda estimates that the disaster aid funding will be depleted in March. When that occurs, he said many of the 1.3 million Puerto Ricans enrolled in NAP will likely see cuts to their benefits, while approximately 100,000 people who enrolled in the program after the hurricanes struck the island could loose all of their assistance.
Rosselló's $600 million request for disaster NAP funding has garnered bipartisan support in both the House and Senate, including from freshman Sen. Rick Scott, R-Florida, but the White House has strongly opposed it. When the amount was included in a Democratic-sponsored spending bill to reopen the government in January, the Trump administration called it "excessive and unnecessary," provoking scathing criticism from Puerto Rican officials and Democratic lawmakers. Balmaceda said the White House's characterization of the request is deeply flawed. "It is not unnecessary. It is quite vital and at this moment, critical because Puerto Rico is still recovering from the hurricanes," he said.
How you can help.
Call your Senator. Switchboard number: 202-224-3121