ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, July 25, 1996 TAG: 9607250057
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, said he intends to use his recent appointment as chairman of a U.S. House of Representatives' Agriculture subcommittee to fight for food-stamp reform and "an end to the cycle of dependency our food stamp program has helped create."
Goodlatte, who took over leadership of the Agriculture Subcommittee on Department Operations, Nutrition and Foreign Agriculture on Monday, said he will also use his position to cut "wasteful layers of bureaucracy and intrusive and cumbersome red tape" at the Department of Agriculture's Washington headquarters.
A recent bill passed by the House improves the $26 billion food stamp program, but President Clinton may veto it, Goodlatte said. "If that happens, as subcommittee chairman, I will continue to take a leading role in reforming food stamps," he said.
Goodlatte said the legislation contains an amendment he wrote that would permanently disqualify anyone from the food-stamp program who has been convicted of trafficking in more than $500 worth of stamps. Another of his amendments, aimed at curbing fraud, would require an Agriculture Department agent to visit any retailer wishing to take part in the program, he said.
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, announced Goodlatte's appointment. "Bob has been a leader in efforts to reform the food stamp program, rewrite our pesticide laws and root out wasteful spending and questionable practices at the Department of Agriculture," Roberts said.
Roberts named Goodlatte to the leadership post after the death of the subcommittee's previous chairman, Rep. Bill Emerson, R-Mo. The chairmanship is Goodlatte's first.
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