Many US lawmakers to live off food stamps for a week

When lavish lunches are held in the coming days on Capitol Hill, several US lawmakers will be foregoing the lobster bisque and steamed asparagus for canned beans and tuna fish.
Beginning as early as tomorrow, more than two dozen Democrats in the House of Representatives will join the Food Stamp Challenge, living on USD 4.50 in daily food expenses -- USD 1.50 per meal -- to highlight the plight of America's poor.
More than 47 million Americans receive food stamps -- a government stipend aimed at helping the poor to make ends meet -- but the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) faces budget cuts in deficit-weary Washington.

The US Senate this week approved a sweeping farm bill that eliminates USD 4 billion in waste from the program.
But many House Republicans want to slash an additional USD 20 billion from SNAP, which supporters of the program fear would kick two million Americans living on the hunger line -- many of them children -- off the program.
"This is a conversation we need to have, and I hope this challenge will help us continue the dialogue," said congressman James McGovern, who starts his challenge tomorrow.

By early today 29 lawmakers and more than 40 staffers had said they would participate in the challenge.

"Spent USD 7.58 on canned tuna in shopping for the #SNAPchallenge, more than any other food item. Also bought pasta, cheese, green beans," veteran Michigan Democrat Sandy Levin said on Twitter.
For California congresswoman Barbara Lee, who like many lawmakers shopped early today for her USD 31.50 food week, the challenge is personal -- Lee received such assistance herself when she was raising her two sons.
"It was a bridge over troubled water, and without it, I wouldn't be where I am today," Lee said in a blog post, recounting how her supermarket visit brought those memories flooding back.
"I try hard to get some more fresh fruit and vegetables, but they're out of my price range," she wrote. Balancing health and cost is extraordinarily tough, she said.

But Lee, McGovern and others hope their high-profile week of frugality might convince their Republican colleagues to re-think their eagerness to cut a vital assistance program.