A better way to see who’s buying your senator
SalonIt only took 15 years, but senators must now electronically file their campaign finance reports directly to the Federal Elections Committee as part of a provision tacked onto a larger appropriations bill that Trump signed on September 21. In one ridiculous error found by the investigation, it showed U.S. Senate candidate Bill Bledsoe, a Libertarian running for a seat to represent South Carolina, spent $613,638 to fill up his van’s gas tank – an error that occurred two weeks in a row, when somewhere along the line his FEC identification number was mistaken for his gas payment. Food Policy Action is launching a digital resource for voters to see how members of Congress have voted over the past six years on policy issues spanning food safety issues, the environment, and aid to the hungry, as well as the recently passed Farm Bill. Under the Trump Administration, we’ve seen rollbacks in nutritional standards for school lunches; budget proposals that endanger food assistance programs for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, beneficiaries – the largest domestic hunger safety net for millions of low-income individuals and families; and a delay by the Environmental Protection Agency of a new rule that includes farmworker protection from exposure to pesticides, to name just a few. As part of the voter toolkit, Food Policy Action has also condensed its topline findings from its annual report, A Plate Divided: Food Policy and Congress, which was released earlier this year, for voters.