Date: 1981-06-23
Speaker: DE LA GARZA (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. the Committee on Agriculture. in an emergency meeting this morning. directed the chairman to introduce. at the earliest possible time today. a bill to increase the authorization for appropriations for the food stamp program for fiscal year 1981. and to continue in effect. through August 7 of this year. provisions under which recipients of supplemental security income in the State of California will continue to have their food stamp benefits cashed out. The committee also directed the chairman to seek to have the bill considered today. I rise in support of H.R. 3991. the bill which I introduced today at the committees direction. Emergency action on this bill is necessary. If legislation is not enacted by July 1 of this year. actions of two kinds may be necessary. First. the Secretary of Agriculture will have to notify the States that reductions in current food stamp program benefit levels may be required because of impending inadequacy of funds. Second. recipients of supplemental security income in the State of California who receive State supplementary payments will become eligible for food stamps. This would entail the State potentially having to process over 600.000 SSI recipients for the food stamp program. at great cost to the State and the Federal Government. Let me first address the issue of program funding for the current fiscal year. It has for some time been evident that the level of funds authorized to be appropriatedand appropriatedwould not be adequate to fund the program at current benefit levels through fiscal year 1981. This is due to factors such as higher than anticipated participation rates and bonus costs. and increases in the price of food. Measures have been taken to address this situation. Both in H.R. 3603. the 1981 farm bill. and in its reconciliation bill. the Committee on Agriculture included provisions paralleling those in H.R. 3991 to increase the authorization for appropriations for fiscal 1981 from about $9.739 billion to $11.480 billion. Further. the supplemental appropriation bill recently enacted into law increased appropriations for the program to the full level authorized by this billbut on condition that authorizing legislation be enacted. and that an official amended supplemental request is transmitted to the Congress. It is now apparent that other legislation increasing the fiscal 1981 program authorization will not become law by The Secretary of Agriculture has informed the committee that he will delay. until July 1. the latest possible date. the issuance to the States of an order requiring major benefit reductions due to the uncertainty of program funding. The Secretary states that he had delayed issuance of the order in the hope of receiving a timely authorization. Further. the Speaker has received letters from the President and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget supporting the full amount authorized by the bill. In these circumstances. the committee strongly believes that immediate action is necessary to prevent the disruption which would be caused by an order for the reduction of benefit levels. and to permit the program to be carried out through the current fiscal year at the benefit levels now established by law. Meanwhile. legislation such as the committees 1981 farm bill and reconciliation bill can be considered which addresses the reduc-. tion of program costs for the 1982 and subsequent fiscal years. The bill would also deal with another emergency situation involving the food stamp program. It would amend section 8 of Public Law 93233. a law related to the Social Security Act which is concerned with procedures for determining the level of the State supplementary payment to supplemental security income recipients in California. A portion of their payment is in lieu of food stamps and. L. provided for in section 6(g) of the Food Stamp Act of 1977. such recipients are "cashedout" of the food stamp program. The current provisions governing this program expired on June 30. 1981. In the absence of legislation. as of July 1. 1981. all SSI recipients currently prohibited from receiving food stamps as a result of their cashout status would likely be eligible for the food stamp program. resulting in Callfornia potentially having to process over 600.000 SSI recipients for food stamps. Returning these recipients to the food stamp program could substantially increase both the cost of the program in the State and the administrative burden on the State agency. Such increases would be inconsistent with efforts to reduce food stamp expenditures. The increase in administrative burden would be especially hard felt in this instance as the large number of SSI/SSP recipients would potentially have to be assimilated to the food stamp program at the same time on or near July 1. 1981. The amendment would. however. be effective only during the period from July 1 to August 1. 1981. It would. therefore. avoid a massive and costly program change as of July 1. but would permit the consideration of longer term approaches to.the problem. such as those contained in H.R. 3603. the 1981 farm bill. and in the reconciliation bill reported to the Budget Committee by the Committee on Ways and Means. The latter committee shares Jurisdiction over this matter since it deals with SSI payment levels which relate to the Social Security Act. In view of the emergency nature of this bill. the Committee on Ways and Means has waived jurisdiction. I recog. nize that committees jurisdictional interest in section 2 of the bill. and I appreciate its cooperation in permitting the bill expeditiously to be brought to the floor. Because of the urgent need for prompt action. and because the committees involved have previously considered and reported favorably other bills which would have a similar effect. I urge my colleagues to join me in support of H.R. 3991.