Chris Graham reports at The Augusta Free Press:
A bipartisan group of Virginia lawmakers is pushing back against the Trump USDA’s move to cancel $500 million in funding for food banks.
Not surprisingly, the USDA is not commenting publicly on the cancellation of previously-approved funding through The Emergency Food Assistance Program, which comes on top of the decision handed down from the Trump/Musk DOGE to cancel two Biden-era programs – the Local Foods for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program – that provided more than $1 billion nationally for schools and food banks to purchase food from local farmers.
The lawmakers made their case in a letter to USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins.
“Through TEFAP, USDA purchases nutritious commodity food from growers and producers, which is then provided to state agencies. Those agencies then deliver that food to distributers, including food banks and community organizations at no cost,” they wrote.
The letter was signed by Virginia’s two Democratic senators, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, as well as by all of the Commonwealth’s Democratic House members. They were even joined by three House Republicans– Morgan Griffith Rob Wittman and Jen Kiggans– not previously known for standing up to any actions by the Trump administration.
And what about our own Ben Cline? His signature was notably absent from the letter, as was that of Republican John McGuire.
It increasingly appears that Cline deathly fears doing or saying anything that might be construed as criticism of Trump– even if it means hurting local farmers and depriving local food banks of necessary commodities. Either that or he is perfectly fine with what Trump is doing.
Probably a combination of both.
Cline Watch 