Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell said Governor Jeff Landry is in danger of being “the next Bobby Jindal” by refusing federal aid that would help underprivileged children eat during summer.
Landry is rejecting $71 million from the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer Program to give families at or near the poverty line up to $40 per month per child to purchase food.
USDA estimates that nearly 600,000 children in Louisiana, which is second in the nation in poverty, could benefit from the Summer EBT program.
Campbell recalled that Gov. Jindal in 2009 rejected $300 million in federal aid to build passenger-rail service between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, and in 2011 Jindal vetoed $80 million in federal aid to provide high-speed internet service to 21 rural Louisiana parishes.
“Is Jeff Landry the next Bobby Jindal?” Campbell said. “No Louisiana politician that I know wants that title.”
Campbell said many political debates are complicated, which makes solutions difficult to achieve.
“This is not complicated,” he said. “Governor Landry just needs to fill out the paperwork and kids who are hungry will have food to eat.”
Campbell said former Gov. John Bel Edwards could have accepted the food program before he left office, but did not. “Now it’s Gov. Landry’s opportunity to do the right thing for our children.
“If Jeff Landry doesn’t want to be compared to Bobby Jindal, he should stop trying to score political points in Washington, D.C., and do what’s right for his state.”