MacIver News Service | September 20, 2013
[Washington, DC] A bill that would try to prevent people from buying junk food with food stamps might be stalled in the Wisconsin Senate, but it’s inspired a Congressman from Tennessee to try and make it a federal law.Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tennessee) introduced a House Resolution on September 10th inspired by Wisconsin Representative Dean Kaufert (R-Neenah), who authored a bill that would explore the possibility of limiting what kinds of foods people can buy under the Food Share program.
“Already, states like Wisconsin and South Carolina have shown interest in improving the healthfulness of choices in their SNAP programs,” he said. “By giving SNAP recipients more nutritious choices, we can take a meaningful step towards ending hunger in America.”
The Assembly passed the bill in May on a 68-26 vote. However, it has yet to make it out of committee in the Senate.
“I am glad to see that legislators at the federal level are following Wisconsin’s lead in our FoodShare reform efforts. We need to reduce the abuse and misuse of this program and get a better value for taxpayer dollars spent on it. It’s great to see this idea spreading to other states and now the federal level. The more support the better to succeed in bringing some common sense reforms to this program,” said Kaufert.