I just realized I have been remiss in posting Congressman Mike Doyle‘s response to my request to maintain food stamp assistance in the Farm Bill (which was passed in the Senate today, in case you’re wondering). Doyle and I are firmly in the same camp on this issue, which is probably why I received both an email and an actual letter in the mail about this (the text was the same). Still no response from Toomey.
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Thank you for contacting me in support of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). I am glad we agree on this important issue. I am grateful that you took the time to write to me, and I welcome the opportunity to respond.
Like you, I strongly believe that it is our duty as a society to care for those less fortunate than ourselves, and SNAP plays a big role in providing this help. In the fiscal year 2011, SNAP helped around 44.7 million people, about half of whom were children. As families across the country continue to rebuild, SNAP has been there to assist those families hardest hit and keep them out of extreme poverty.
Unfortunately, a war is being waged on such social safety net programs. Just as people need food stamps more, the Republicans’ proposed budget seeks to cut funding for SNAP by $133 billion and tighten the eligibility requirements.
I voted against this proposed budget, but unfortunately it did pass the House. Luckily, it will be dead on arrival in the Democrat controlled Senate, and, because a budget has to pass both the Senate and the House in order to become law, we can be relatively certain that these draconian cuts won’t survive. Please be assured that I will continue to work with my colleagues here in the House to protect SNAP and other programs like it.
Again, thank you for contacting me in support of SNAP. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I may ever be of assistance in the future.
Sincerely,
Mike Doyle
Member of Congress
Awesome!
I figured out (since your last post on this topic) that Toomey has a “capcha” filter on his incoming mail, and not all group sites that encourage you to post to all of your congress-critters at once can properly handle it; _if_ a message actually gets through the filter, he is still quite quick to respond. So, if you never got a response, it is because he never got your original comment.
a-ha! So he’s not as evil as he appears to be. It’s moot for the moment since the Senate passed the bill today; I’ll keep an eye on things in the House and see if I need to message him again when they try to reconcile the two bills. Thanks for the info!