State Policy
The legislature continues its work to wrap up the 128th
legislative session. The bill that the Food Bank had been working on, LD 173 An
Act to Reduce Food Insecurity, which would have provided funding for statewide
hunger relief services, died on the Appropriations Table. We will soon begin
planning our approach for working with the legislature during the next session
to support our mission.
Federal Policy
The Senate passed its version of the Farm Bill, which
protects and strengthens the SNAP program, on June 28. The House passed a Farm
Bill that would drastically change SNAP and cut benefits for more than 2
million Americans earlier in June. Now the two bodies must work out a
conference version of the Farm Bill. They are expected to start conferencing
the bill after the July 4 recess, so there will be more information to come
later in the summer.