Congressman Mike Rogers has made the following statement after passage of H.R. 3102, which passed the House of Representatives with his support.

“I’ve said it so many times, but it still rings true – Washington has a serious spending problem.  Today’s legislation will reform the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the food stamp program, and save taxpayers almost $40 billion over the next decade.  SNAP does play an essential role in helping those in need, but the waste and abuse of this program originally designed to help the very poor has ballooned out-of-control. Spending on the SNAP program has over doubled since 2007 and these reforms should help encourage able-bodied folks to get back to work. I believe by re-enforcing the work provisions of the 1996 Welfare Reform law which were relaxed in the President’s Stimulus bill we can move people from food stamps to jobs.

“This bill will help rein in this spending and allow food stamps to be used in the way they were intended to be used:  for those who need it most.  We must get our country’s fiscal house in order and this legislation is a good first step.”

Congressman Mike Rogers serves as the Chairman of the Strategic Forces subcommittee on the Armed Services Committee and he is a senior member of the Homeland Security and Agriculture committees.