MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

First signals of US congressional clash: Republicans vote to cut food stamp benefits

An estimated one in seven Americans - most of them children, elderly or disabled - receive food stamps. 15% of Americans live in poverty

US lawmakers have narrowly voted to cut food stamp benefits from next year despite a veto threat from the White House and opposition from lobby groups. The Republican-led House of Representatives passed the bill by 217-200. But it has little chance in the Democratic-held Senate.

The bill would save 39bn over a decade, but affect four million people on the program. It came in the week after census data showed 15% of Americans live in poverty. An estimated one in seven Americans - most of them children, elderly or disabled - receive food stamps.

The bill aims to cut 4bn a year, representing about 5% of the current programme.

The budget savings would be achieved by allowing states to use work requirements for recipients and test applicants for drugs. It would also end waivers to allow able-bodied adults without dependents to receive food stamps indefinitely.

According to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), the food programme bill has tripled since 2004 and cost about 78bn last year.

The White House said in a statement the bill would damage “one of our nation's strongest defences against hunger and poverty” and the Congressional Budget Office says that if the bill were enacted, up to 3.8 million people could lose their benefits next year.

But House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who led the legislative push, said it was “wrong for working, middle-class people to pay” for abuse of the programme.

Every Democrat voting on Thursday opposed the bill. Fifteen Republicans voted against the measure. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called it a “full assault on the health and economic security of millions of families”.

Another Democratic congressman, Texas Representative Lloyd Doggett, called it the “let them starve” bill.

The measure is likely to go nowhere in the Senate - Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow labelled it “a monumental waste of time”. A bill passed in the Senate in June cut food stamps by $400m a year, one tenth of the House cuts. The two chambers will have to negotiate the differences between the plans before any cuts come into effect.