Washington, D.C. – Bread for the World today released the following statement regarding the fiscal year 2018 omnibus spending bill, which was signed by President Trump. The statement can be attributed to Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World:
“With this bill, the threat of massive cuts to anti-poverty programs has been put on hold.
“The president and this Congress had both approved budgets that outlined cuts of more than $2 trillion from programs that help people in poverty. But thankfully, anti-poverty programs fared well in the negotiations of the last month. In fact, Congress has not finalized any significant cuts to anti-poverty programs since the Trump administration began.
“Bread for the World has taken up an 'offering' from churches across the country – not an offering of money, but of letters to Congress urging continued funding for programs that help to reduce hunger and poverty in our country and around the world. Churches organized hundreds of letter-writing events across the country, resulting in hundreds of thousands of hand-written letters and personalized emails to their lawmakers. Clearly, Congress heard our message.
“Our celebration is tempered by the dramatic increase in deficit spending -- $2 trillion over the last four months, mostly for tax cuts for high-income people. Only 3% of this deficit spending went to programs for low-income people. So, when Congress gets serious about deficit reduction again – as they should do – no one should propose fixing the problem by cutting programs for people in poverty.”
Afghanistan would be considered likely to have high rates of hunger because at least two of the major causes of global hunger affect it—armed conflict and fragile governmental institutions.
Malnutrition is responsible for nearly half of all preventable deaths among children under 5. Every year, the world loses hundreds of thousands of young children and babies to hunger-related causes.
Bread for the World is calling on the Biden-Harris administration and Congress to build a better 1,000-Days infrastructure in the United States.
“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in faith.” These words from Colossians 2:6 remind us of the faith that is active in love for our neighbors.
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The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is designed to respond to changes in need, making it well suited to respond to crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bread for the World and its partners are asking Congress to provide $200 million for global nutrition.
In 2017, 11.8 percent of households in the U.S.—40 million people—were food-insecure, meaning that they were unsure at some point during the year about how they would provide for their next meal.