White House Accused of Taking Credit for Relief It Wants to Cut

WASHINGTON — A California congressman accused the White House of taking credit for government-sponsored food aid and programs for the homeless “with one hand while trying to cut them with another” on Thursday, after a federal official praised Administration efforts on such programs, which have been targets for reduction in the fiscal 1987 budget.

“It’s time to stop this charade!” Rep. Leon E. Panetta (D-Monterey) shouted during a hearing of the House Select Committee on Hunger, which he chairs. “I have a difficult time understanding how you can at the same time both take credit for programs and cut them.”

The object of Panetta’s wrath, John W. Bode, assistant agriculture secretary, defended the Administration’s apparent reversals of lower income requirements for food stamps and continuing emergency food programs. Both provisions were signed into law last year.

Reductions in Budget

In the 1987 budget, however, federal officials propose trimming $350 million from the food stamp program’s $11.7-billion budget, eliminating $50 million in administrative funds for distributing federal surplus food to soup kitchens, and reducing school lunch and milk programs.

Bode, who had hailed Administration efforts to aid the hungry and the homeless earlier at the hearing, justified the proposed cuts by offering evidence of a 10% decline in donations of federal surplus food to charitable institutions and a 3.5-million drop in the number of food-stamp program participants, which he attributed to “our improved economic situation.”

He blamed Congress for waste and mismanagement in the federal programs.