Omnibus Spending Bill Continues Funding
Food Stamp Ads in Mexico
by Matthew Boyle 14 Jan 2014
The omnibus spending bill before Congress
continues to fund U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) advertising programs for food stamps in foreign
countries like Mexico, Breitbart News
has learned.
The bill was hashed out between House
Appropriations Committee chairman Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY) and Senate Appropriations
Committee chairwoman Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD). The funding will continue
despite claims in a document the House Appropriations Committee published that
the bill contains a “prohibition” on such programs. Page three of this press
document states regarding food stamps that the omnibus spending bill contains a
"prohibition on advertisements or outreach with foreign governments."
The entire paragraph that contains that
statement reads:
Requirements for the Secretary of
Agriculture to help weed out and eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in the SNAP
program – including a directive to ban fraudulent vendors, and a prohibition on
advertisements or outreach with foreign governments.
However, upon reading through the text of
the bill and the bill summary explanatory document, there is no such
“prohibition” included in it. Instead, the explanatory document that Rogers published just
states that USDA is “strongly discouraged” from advertising food stamps
programs with foreign governments.
“There is concern about the use of
valuable tax dollars to promote enrollment of SNAP through radio, television,
and other advertisements as well as outreach activities with foreign
governments to encourage the use of SNAP,” the explanatory document Rogers
published states. “USDA is strongly encouraged to cease these types of
government-sponsored recruitment activities.”
There is a massive difference between
actually prohibiting the use of funds via law through the omnibus bill, or
defunding the program, and merely issuing a strongly-worded warning to the USDA
about the practice.
House Appropriations Committee spokeswoman
Jennifer Hing admitted to Breitbart News that there is not really a
“prohibition” on funding for such programs.
“The committee’s position is that for
practical purposes, this language is a ‘directive’ to ‘ban,’” Hing said in an
email on Tuesday. “It is binding in that decisions on future SNAP funding could
hinge on compliance.”
Yet the mere threat of future
repercussions if the USDA continues these practices does nothing to stop them
now.
Current USDA secretary Tom Vilsack has
promoted this policy of advertising food stamps programs with foreign
governments and evaded oversight pressure from various members of Congress,
like Senate Budget Committee ranking member Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), on the
matter.
In a July 18, 2012, letter to Vilsack, for
instance, Sessions wrote that the USDA has not complied with oversight requests
from his staff on this matter – and that the advertising of U.S. food stamps programs in foreign countries
like Mexico
represents a gross departure from food stamps’ original purpose.
“It has become increasingly clear that the
mission of the food stamp program has moved from targeted welfare assistance
for those in need into an aggressive drive to expand enrollment regardless of
need,” Sessions wrote to Vilsack. “To cite just one example, a character in a
USDA-produced Spanish language ‘radio novela’ tries to convince a friend to
enroll in food stamps even though that individual says ‘I don’t need anyone’s
help. My husband earns enough to take care of us.’ The first individual
responds, ‘When are you going to learn?’ Pride ought to be celebrated, not
mocked.”
Sessions followed up again with Vilsack in
March 2013 after the secretary provided the senator with a minimal response
that did not fully answer his questions.
Similarly, during the Senate Budget
Committee markup of the Democratic budget that Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) offered
last year, Sessions offered an amendment that would have ended the USDA’s
partnership with Mexico on food stamp advertising in that country. Senate
Democrats unanimously voted against that Sessions amendment.
The omnibus spending bill from Rogers and
Mikulski is the second part of the budget deal that House Budget Committee
chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) cut with Murray.
The Ryan-Murray deal set broad outlays, while the Rogers-Mikulski omnibus
spending bill offers specific funding directed at various programs and agencies
as part of a reflection of the broader guidelines of the Ryan-Murray deal.
Mexico
Ernesto
Zedillo was the president for Mexico,
and a board member for the International Crisis Group.
Note: George
Soros is a board member for the International Crisis Group,
and the chairman for the Foundation to
Promote Open Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Brookings Institution (think tank), and the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Carlos
Pascual was the VP for the Brookings
Institution (think tank), the
U.S.
ambassador for Mexico, and is a special
envoy, international energy affairs, assistant secretary nominee for the U.S. Department of State.
John F. Kerry
is the secretary at the U.S. Department of State
for the Barack Obama administration, and
married to Teresa Heinz Kerry.
Teresa
Heinz Kerry is married to John F. Kerry,
and is an honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank).
Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is an
honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution
(think tank), Valerie B. Jarrett’s
great uncle, a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), a senior counsel for Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think
tank).
Cyrus
F. Freidheim Jr. is an honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Valerie
B. Jarrett is Vernon E. Jordan Jr’s great niece, the senior adviser for the Barack Obama administration, and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Commercial Club of Chicago, Members Directory
A-Z (Past Research)
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
James S.
Crown is a member of the Commercial Club
of Chicago, and a trustee at the Aspen
Institute (think tank).
Lester Crown
is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago,
and was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen
Institute (think tank).
Daniel
R. Glickman is a director, Congressional Program for the Aspen Institute (think tank), was a senior
adviser for Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP,
and the secretary for the U.S.
Department of Agriculture.
J. David
Carlin is a partner at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer
& Feld, LLP, and was the assistant
secretary for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Food
and Nutrition Service is a division of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture.
William
Hoagland was an administrator for the Food and Nutrition Service,
and is a director at the Committee for a
Responsible Federal Budget.
Committee
for a Responsible Federal Budget was housed at the New America
Foundation.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the New America
Foundation, and the Brookings
Institution (think tank).
George Soros
is the chairman for the Foundation to Promote
Open Society, and a board member for the International
Crisis Group.
Ernesto
Zedillo was a board member for the International Crisis Group,
and the president for Mexico.
Carlos
Pascual was the U.S.
ambassador for Mexico, and the VP for
the Brookings Institution (think tank).
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