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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Heat and Eat: Crucial Program for PA Low-Income Households On The Line

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Monday, December 3, 2012   

PHILADELPHIA - "Fiscal cliff" negotiations in Washington are taking aim at many critical programs, including one in Pennsylvania that helps make sure thousands of low-income residents can heat their homes and feed their families. "Heat and Eat" is an initiative that allows states to help those in need with money from both the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and food stamps, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP.

Carey Morgan, executive director of the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger, says this is vital.

"This is a great program that coordinates coverage of two basic needs and allows people to be both fed and stay warm during the winter months."

In the Capitol Hill Farm Bill negotiations, a proposal under consideration in the Senate would cut spending on SNAP by $4 billion over ten years. Opponents say it would limit states such as Pennsylvania in their efforts to coordinate LIHEAP and SNAP benefits to maximize help for those struggling to get by.

Morgan says the SNAP reduction would take real money out of the pockets of children, seniors and persons living with disabilities.

"It would mean a reduction in food stamp or SNAP benefits for tens of thousands of people in Pennsylvania. That reduction would be anywhere from $70 to $90 a month. "

Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), says a recent poll conducted by his group found that most Americans don't want the nation's financial problems balanced on the backs of food-stamp recipients.

"The public doesn't want to cut the food-stamp system as a way to solve the deficit. 75 percent says that cutting SNAP is the wrong way to reduce spending, and the opposition is across the board, from Democrats, Republicans and independents. They all think this is just a bad idea."

See the full FRAC report at frac.org.




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