Showing entries tagged: 'legislative-updates'

Government Shutdown

The shutdown of the federal government is heading toward its fourth week, making it the longest shutdown in U.S. history and leaving over 800,000 federal workers, including nearly 29,000 living in Wisconsin, furloughed or working without pay. We are concerned on two fronts about a prolonged government shutdown. The first, of course, is that 29,000 federal employees living in Wisconsin, working hard and playing by the rules, are currently not receiving paychecks. While the government is shutdown, the need for food or the need to pay the mortgage or the car payment does not. The challenges and uncertainties that these federal workers are now facing are just like the challenges that many other of our friends and neighbors face when they are not earning enough money or working enough hours due to no fault of their own.

We passed the Farm Bill!

After two years of consideration, the House of Representatives and the Senate passed the Conference Report for the 2018 Farm Bill. This means we passed a Farm Bill that protects SNAP, fights hunger, and strengthens rural communities! The president is expected to sign the bill into law next week.

A Tale of Two Farm Bills

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Congress has two very different versions of the Farm Bill to conform in a conference committee. The Senate passed its version of the Farm Bill yesterday on a strong, bipartisan vote. This sets up a conference between the Senate and the House, which narrowly passed its version of the Farm Bill just last week, to hash out the differences between the two versions. Both chambers will have to pass the conformed Farm Bill coming out of conference before the President can sign it into law. Given the vast differences in SNAP policy between the two versions, this may be a difficult task.

Senate Ag Committee Passes Bipartisan Farm Bill

The Senate Agriculture committee passed its version of the Farm Bill today and we join with a broad cross-section of farm, food, environment, and anti-hunger advocates to applaud the passage of this bipartisan bill.

Harvest for Hope Passes Senate Ag & is Set for the Assembly Floor!

Harvest for Hope (AB 577 & SB 487) has cleared committees in both chambers and is now heading for a full vote in both the Assembly and Senate! We need you to reach out to your state legislators to let them know that you support increasing fresh food for Wisconsin families at-risk of hunger and that you want them to support these bills too.