Bread National Grassroots Conference Call and Webinar

April 19, 2012, 4pm EST

Welcome

LaVida Davis Director of Organizing and Grassroots Capacity Building Mannik Sakayan Deputy Director of Government Relations www.bread.org

Ralph Cole Boston, MA www.bread.org

What’s Happening on the Hill?

Amelia Kegan Senior Policy Analyst www.bread.org

Christine Melendez Ashley Policy Analyst

What’s happening in Congress?

What’s happened to Congress?

Unprecedented attacks on programs for hungry and poor people

• House budget cuts SNAP by $133 billion and turns it into a block grant • House agriculture committee asked to find another $33 billion and decides to take every penny of that and more from SNAP • Ways and Means committee asked to find $53 billion and proposes to kick one million of the lowest-income families off the child tax credit • House budget committee hearing questioning the social safety-net.

Statements made at Tuesday’s House Budget Committee hearing

• “One in six people are in poverty today. Rates are the highest they've been in a generation. And as we've seen our spending on these programs is at an all time high as well. So it's not working.” • “If we had just kept the safety net [eligibility and benefit] rules . . . the way they were in 2007, if we just kept it that way, the recession would have been kind of half as deep . . . So to put it simply, the safety net rule changes roughly doubled the magnitude of the recession.” • “[SNAP is] the same old give-away program. It always was. It doesn't serve, I mean certainly need. I don't want to suggest that people aren't getting this money and aren't getting benefits from it, but in terms of promoting self sufficiency and upward progress, it's a -- it's not good at all, and we need to change it.” • “And so I think that there's also this -- this shift in our society that there are so many government programs out there, go out and find it and you can make a living off of it.” • “There's another place if none of those options work to find food; there's always the neighborhood dumpster.”*

Round two is on its way

Soon the House will start marking up appropriations bills for funding international food aid, poverty-focused development assistance, WIC, and all the domestic anti-poverty programs.

Every nasty proposal to cut these programs presents an opportunity to demand an alternate vision for the country.

You might be feeling a little like this guy right now

We need to make attacking programs for hungry and poor people unacceptable. We need to forcefully oppose attempts to balance the budget on the backs of poor and vulnerable populations.

Don’t get stuck on the process

• Farm Bill, appropriations bills, reconciliation bills, tax bills all unlikely to pass the Senate before November • We will see these proposals again- especially if we’re silent now

Stick to the message

• Create a circle of protection around funding for programs for hungry and poor people in the U.S. and around the world.

• The federal budget is a moral document.

• Don’t cut programs for hungry and poor people.

• Take a balanced approach to deficit reduction in a way that won’t increase hunger or poverty.

It’s Time to Raise Your Voice

Call to Action!

Matt Newell-Ching Western Regional Organizer Robin Stephenson Western Region Organizer www.bread.org

National Lobby 2012

Join Us for Lobby Day 2012!

When: Tuesday, June 12, 2012 Where: In Washington, DC

For more information and to register please go to—

www.bread.org/event/lobby day/2012/

Tools & Resources

2012 Offering of Letters Website www.bread.org/ol Stay up to date on campaigns

Get Connected!

www.bread.org

Report From the Field

Nicole Schmidt HJL Graduate Vermillion, OH www.bread.org

Jon Gromek North Central Regional Office Dayton, OH (937) 227-9450 www.bread.org

Next Steps

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Next Call: 5/17/12

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Closing Prayer

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