PROPOSED USDA FOOD STAMP CUTBACKS FOR THE ELDERLY MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1975 U.S. SENATE, SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON AGING, Washington, D.C. The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 1:15 p.m., in the caucus room, 318 Russell Building, Hon. Frank Church, chairman, presiding. Present: Senators Church, Kennedy, Pell, Chiles, Clark, and Bartlett. Also present: William E. Oriol, staff director; Deborah Kilmer, professional staff member; John Guy Miller, minority staff director; Margaret Fayé, minority professional staff member; Patricia Oriol, chief clerk; Eugene Cummings, printing assistant; and Kathryn Dann, assistant chief clerk. OPENING STATEMENT BY SENATOR FRANK CHURCH, CHAIRMAN Senator CHURCH. The Senate Special Committee on Aging will please come to order. Good afternoon. Over the last few years, the Congress has time and again found it necessary to come to the defense of the elderly when the administration attempted to make them the scapegoats for inflation. Today's hearing concerns yet another administration attempt to penalize senior citizens for economic conditions beyond their control. The White House fact sheet on President Ford's food stamp reform proposal tells us that it will "significantly increase benefits for those truly in need." Yet the President's Department of Agriculture is proposing new food stamp allotment formulas-which may be effective in the immediate future-severely reducing food stamp benefits for many needy. In response to a U.S. court of appeals ruling to amend the food stamp allotment formula, the Department of Agriculture has issued regulations allegedly intended to better serve food stamp recipients. But two of these three proposals could seriously cut back and discourage the elderly's use of food stamps at a time when inflation is squeezing their limited budgets drastically. Only recently have the elderly begun to use food stamps to their most effective potential, not only for buying groceries but also to pay for meals served in nutrition centers and for home delivered meals. POSSIBLE LOSS IN BENEFITS In many ways, then, food stamps have helped numerous older Americans to obtain nutritious meals. But as the program now operates, an eligible participant must purchase a specific allotment of food stamps for a certain price. USDA's proposed allotment formulas, however, would cause the purchaser to suffer a loss in food stamp benefits. Some elderly would lose as much as $20 worth of stampswhich is $20 they cannot afford-and many would be forced to drop out of the program. Since most older Americans are struggling on limited incomes, they can ill afford this new burden. I am especially concerned about the proposed formula's impact on the SSI recipient. In my State of Idaho, as well as 17 other States, the SSI recipient could be completely eliminated from the food stamp program. The fact that these individuals are eligible for SSI is evidence of their low-income status. Yet, they would not be eligible for food stamps under the new regulations. It seems rather ironic that one program would cancel out the effects of another. I fully support better administration of our assistance programs— whether they be SSI, food stamps, or others. Many of these programs certainly have problems. But they are not corrected by putting greater burdens on our elderly. It is my understanding that November 13-10 days from now-is the deadline to comment on USDA's proposed regulations. These regulations could become effective soon thereafter. USDA must, in accordance with the court's ruling, carefully consider and weigh all comments. I urge my colleagues and fellow citizens to submit their views in support of the elderly. Food stamp reform legislation is still only in the developmental stage, but these new allotment regulations are an immediate crisis for the needy among us. I call upon the administration to review the impact of the total budget-not just social programs. The administration continues to cut social programs right and left and veto important and worthwhile legislation yet, asks at the same time for a $2.6 billion increase in the defense budget and persists in its proclivities for business bail-outs. I cannot agree with these priorities, and it is evident that the Congress shares my concern for the needs of the elderly. In the past year, for example, the Congress has been able to halt administration attempts to: (1) Freeze social security and SSI cost-of-living increases at 5 percent instead of 8 percent as authorized by law: (2) Increase out-of-pocket payments by medicare patients by over $1 billion: (3) Raise the purchase price of food stamps to 30 percent; and (4) Phase out funding for a community service employment program for the elderly despite an unemployment rate which is the highest in 34 years. The purpose of today's hearing is to join once again to halt yet another administration attempt to unfairly victimize the elderly. We will now hear from Senator Kennedy. STATEMENT BY SENATOR EDWARD M. KENNEDY Senator KENNEDY. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to participate in this hearing on the need to provide adequate food assistance for the elderly citizens of our country. Your leadership in this important area deserves every commendation from those of us who have been concerned for a long time about the need to assist the thousands of elderly people who simply do not obtain the food they must have for good health. Today's hearings appropriately address the plans of the Agriculture Department that could cause so many people to fall even further behind in the struggle for nutritional adequacy. Time and time again I have worked with this committee and with the Select Committee on Nutrition and I have witnessed the actions of the USDA designed to serve the interests of food producers without seriously addressing the deserving demands of hungry people. And so it is, that once again we are faced with proposals from the Department of Agriculture that seem to be more harmful than helpful. First, the Department proposes to use new food stamp regulations that would determine food stamp allotments according to age and sex. Even the Agriculture Department staff is believed to be opposed to this plan because it would require enormously complicated procedures for determining food stamp allotments for each individual household. To say that this plan inaugurates an administrative nightmare is a gross understatement. With 6 million food stamp households across the country, this proposal could institute 6 million customized allotments. It is clear that if USDA has trouble managing the program under current regulations, there would be real chaos with proposal No. 1. The second proposal is the same as the first except that it would eliminate many elderly women from the food stamp program at the end of this year. Then if they could get back onto the program next year, the cost of food stamps would be higher for them. THRIFTY FOOD PLAN INEQUITABLE Finally, the Department proposes new allotment schedules based on the thrifty food plan which fails to provide recipients with a "nutritionally adequate diet." The thrifty food plan was computed from 10-year-old data. It is calculated according to the amount of money households actually spend for food, instead of on the amount needed for adequate nutrition. Paul Provencer, the director of the food stamp program in Massachusetts, insists that we must move to a more adequate level of nutritional adequacy if this program will deliver decent aid for those people who are forced to depend upon this kind of help to get the food they need. As this committee continues its deliberations on this serious matter, I am hopeful that we can encourage the Department of Agriculture to adopt only those regulations that will insure maximum food assistance for needy people. My efforts in this critical area shall continue to be devoted to the development of nutritional adequacy in every respect. As a cosponsor of S. 2451, I have joined Senators McGovern and Dole in supporting the Food Stamp Reform Act of 1975. That bill streamlines the existing program by eliminating the cash transaction requirement so that all eligible food stamp recipients will be assured of getting their allotments with no hassles and no bureaucratic runarounds. It is my hope that together with the efforts of this committee we shall see the continuation of a food stamp program that will indeed serve the needy by providing adequate and substantial aid. Senator CHURCH. Thank you very much. STATEMENT BY SENATOR DICK CLARK Senator CLARK. I want to thank the chairman for calling this hearing in which we shall get a better view of how the new food stamp allotments drawn up by the Department of Agriculture will affect this country's poor and elderly persons. As a representative of a State containing the third largest proportion of senior citizens, I must express my strong displeasure with the proposed changes in the food stamp program allotments. These changes seem to directly contradict the intent of the 1975 U.S. court of appeals ruling. The court instructed the Department of Agriculture to draw up administrative procedures that would guarantee all recipients the opportunity to purchase a nutritionally adequate diet. However, the effect of the new allotments would be exactly the opposite. We will hear testimony today which indicates that, in fact, more than 60 percent of all present recipients would receive substantially reduced benefits. Once again, the elderly of this Nation are being called upon to bear the greatest burden. I would like to submit for the record a copy of a letter* from the Iowa Commission on the Aging to Mr. Jack O. Nichols, the acting director of the Federal food stamp program. This letter points to the retrogressive nature of the Department's three proposals and for their use of the thrifty food plan as the basis of their calculations. INFLATION VERSUS NUTRITION Dr. W. W. Morris, chairman of the Iowa Commission on the Aging, writes that: These are times which are trying enough for many elderly Americans, living as most of them do on fixed and already inadequate incomes during a period of rapidly inflating prices. Therefore, these are times when the Department of Agriculture should be lending every effort to substantially increase food stamp benefits for elderly recipients, probably increase the number of elderly eligible for such benefits, and make sure that food stamp coupon allotments provide all recipients with the "nutritionally adequate diet" guaranteed them under the Food Stamp Act. I quite agree with the views expressed by Dr. Morris, and I hope that these hearings serve to point out the real hardships that these new allotments would impose on this country's senior citizens. *Retained in committee files. Senator CHURCH. We will now hear from the public interest legal firm that filed the suit resulting in the recent court decision. Ronald F. Pollack, director of the Food Research and Action Center, will summarize the finding of the court and the USDA's proposal for new food stamp allotments. Mr. Pollack, if you will come to the microphone, and make yourself comfortable, you can get started. STATEMENT OF RONALD F. POLLACK, DIRECTOR, FOOD RESEARCH AND ACTION CENTER, NEW YORK, N.Y. Mr. POLLACK, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I appreciate the opportunity to appear before the committee today for the purpose of analyzing the Agriculture Department's recent food stamp proposals and their impact on the aged. As members of this committee realize, the food stamp program is immensely important for needy elderly people throughout the country. The importance of the food stamp program for the elderly is underscored by the large number of senior citizens who have sought assistance-but were denied or placed on waiting lists-under title VII of the Older Americans Act, the nutrition program for the elderly. For example, as of a year ago, more than 116,000 aged persons, in 41 States, were on waiting lists at operating title VII projects. When that figure is added to the unknown totals in the other nine States, and when those figures are added to the number of people who desire title VII aid but cannot even apply because no feeding site exists in their community, we find that hundreds of thousands of senior citizens desire nutrition aid but are not getting it. For them, and for many more, the food stamp program is the place of last resort if they are searching to end the pains of hunger and malnutrition. BACKGROUND In determining the effectiveness of the food stamp program, an important-if not the most important-factor to look at is the amount of benefits that poor people receive. Under section 7(a) of the Food Stamp Act, the Agriculture Secretary is required to establish coupon allotment levels that must provide each participating household with "the cost of a nutritionally adequate diet." These benefits must be updated every January and July "to reflect changes in the prices of food." In December 1971, the Food Research and Action Center-in behalf of nine impoverished households and three community organizationsbrought a suit against USDA alleging that the Department's coupon allotments fail to provide nutritional adequacy. Joining with us in this litigation were the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the city of New York. The case was called Rodway v. The United States Department of Agriculture. On June 12, 1975, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia-in a unanimous ruling-held that USDA failed to follow proper administrative procedures when it promulgated its food stamp coupon allotment regulations. More importantly, the court also held 65-120-76-2 |