May 20, 2011

Madison – Federal officials are threatening to withhold new money and take back previous funds for Wisconsin’s food assistance program if state officials don’t scale back efforts to privatize it.

The letter from federal officials follows an April visit to Wisconsin by U.S. Department of Agriculture staff and goes a step further than similar past warnings by saying the state FoodShare program is already in violation of federal rules because of the privatization efforts by two governors.
Federal officials are also separately questioning a new privatization proposal put forward by Republican Gov. Scott Walker for FoodShare, the successor program to food stamps.
In a Wednesday letter to state Health Services Secretary Dennis Smith, Ollice Holden, a Midwest administrator for the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service, warned that Wisconsin had overstepped boundaries laid out for the state last year. Failing to fix the problem could lead USDA to suspend payments to the state for administering FoodShare and seek to recover certain money already paid to Wisconsin, he said.

Small businesses are the backbone of our economy.  Nearly two out of every three jobs are created by small businesses.

If our small businesses are thriving, we will create jobs.  If our small businesses are growing, we will keep our economy moving in the right direction.

This week is Small Business Week, which is the perfect opportunity to reflect on what has been done to support the small business community and to refocus our efforts on helping American small businesses grow.