About 100 members from Idaho Community Action Network, Montana People¹s Action, Oregon Action, and Washington Citizen Action arrived in Idaho to make their voices heard at the Senate Agriculture Committee¹s Farm Bill field hearing on Saturday, October 27.

The group decided to divide itself and sent a delegation of 25 into the hearing to put the issue of hunger and food stamps on the agenda. The rest of the group stayed outside to rally and keep the pressure on with loud chants that could be heard inside the hearing room. Anita Anderson (MPA) and Adan Ramirez (ICAN) kept the group energized during the negotiations occurring inside.

After seeing that the leader of the inside team, Terri Sterling (ICAN), was serious about being allowed to speak, Senator Crapo¹s staff offered to postpone the hearing and meet with the group.

Senator Crapo, his staff, and Rep. Otter met with the NWFCO delegation for a half an hour and listened to comments from Kendall Wolcott (MPA) , Bonnie Chambers (WCA), Susan Merrill (ICAN), and Rose Spears (OA). These leaders gave strong, clear testimony about the policy changes their organizations want in the Food Stamp Program and provided compelling personal stories to back up the demands. Senator Crapo was clearly moved.

When Senator Crapo addressed the group, he agreed that the Food Stamp Program was an important program and promised to work with the group to improve it. However, while he did not specifically say that he opposes immigrant restoration, his comments about that issue lead us to believe that he will not be a supporter on this issue. He claimed that the immigrants' sponsors should be responsible for ensuring the immigrants have food.

After Senator Crapo spoke to the group, he assigned his chief of staff to meet with a smaller NWFCO delegation (Kendall, Retta Green (ICAN), Bonnie, and Moureen Rosera (OA)). His chief of staff wanted to better understand the specific policies that NWFCO groups support. He also suggested that Senator Crapo is taking a careful look at Senator Lugar¹s bill, which provides 3 times more money for Food Stamps than the House version does and includes many other provisions that NWFCO groups support. The chief of staff urged ICAN and NWFCO to stay in touch as the Farm Bill moves forward ­ he believed that the bill is on a fast timeline.

After the action at the hearing, the group left for lunch (thanks Stacy!) and participated in a training to plan state level campaigns. Because most of the policy victories in the Farm Bill are in the form of state options, it is critical that NWFCO affiliates have strong state campaigns to make those options a reality at the state level. Rose and Maureen gave a presentation on how they won in Oregon and then members broke into groups to make their own plans.

Thanks to the National Campaign for its support of this Action.