c. 2000 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ A coalition of religious groups is hoping a last-minute lobbying blitz will push Congress to pass a sweeping food stamps bill, but with only eight working weeks left in a congression year shortened by a national election, the clock is ticking on sweeping hunger reform.

The Hunger Relief Act would restore cuts made to the food stamps program in 1996 and make more than 1 million additional Americans eligible for food stamp assistance.

According to Bread for the World, a 28-year-old hunger relief organization that is leading the push for the bill, 10 million people have been cut from the food stamps program in the last five years, and government spending on the program has dropped by $7 billion.

Part of that decline represents fewer people who need food stamps after welfare reform, but supporters say there are still too many Americans who cannot afford to put nutritionios food on the table.

The bill also represents a growing sense of frustration among America’s charities _ which last year increased food programs by 17 percent _ that Washington’s love affair with faith-based programs cannot keep pace with the growing need seen in churches, synagogues and other agencies.

“The federal government is walking away from the table,” said the Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World. “The churches and charities just can’t do it all. We need to get our government to do its part.”

The legislation would cost about $2.5 billion over five years, which supporters say is just a sliver of projected budget surpluses that exceed $40 billion dollars.

The legislation’s three major goals are to:

_ Restore eligibility to legal immigrants who were cut out of the program in 1996. In 1998, Congress allowed children, elderly and disabled legal immigrants back into the program. The Hunger Relief Act would restore benefits to the remaining two-thirds of legal immigrants, about half a million people.

_ Rework the formula for how the value of a family’s car affects eligibility. Currently, a family with a car worth more than $4,650 cannot get food stamps. The bill would leave the standards up to individual states; currently 24 states have exempted car value from eligibility, and 16 states have amounts higher than the federal standard.

_ Allow families who spend more than half their income on shelter to be eligible for food stamps. The bill would also adjust the figures for inflation. About 750,000 families would become eligible.

“It’s unacceptable and we should be ashamed as Americans who care about others … that we’re not willing to share some of our surplus to help those who really need it,” said Rep. Eva Clayton, a North Carolina Democrat who is one of the bill’s primary sponsors.

Even though the nation’s booming economy has made instant millionaires of thousands of Wall Street tycoons, supporters say many of the folks on Main Street are struggling to get by.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated that 6.1 million adults and 3.3 million children went hungry in 1998, and another study found that 33 percent of former welfare recipients had to skip or cut meals.

It’s a situation Donna Pususta Neste knows all too well. Pususta Neste is the coordinator of neighborhood ministries at Mount Olive Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. As a former welfare recipient in the early 1980s, she says she knows what a difference food stamps can make.

“When I look at my 16-year-old son, I am deeply grateful for the nutritional safety net that was available to us,” she said recently. “Without those programs, I am absolutely positive he would not have had the nutrition he needed in those early stages of life.”

About a quarter of the U.S. Senate and a quarter of the House of Representatives has signed on to the bill, and the proposal has received the support of the White House. Supporters plan to lobby key lawmakers, particularly in states that have abysmal child poverty rates.

The leading argument against the bill is that it would bust the balanced budget agreement and put more people back on welfare. Clayton said there is no excuse not to pass the bill.

“We have a unique opportunity, given this surplus and this great economy, to actually do something about hunger in this country,” she said. “I think the public would very much like to share our bounty with those who need it so very much.”

DEA END ECKSTROM