Lola Fadulu reports in The New York Times that the Trump administration gave final approval Dec. 4 to a rule that will cut about 700,000 people from the federal food-stamp program. The rule will strictly enforce federal work requirements that governors have previously been allowed to waive. Locally, 10.7 percent of residents in the 19th Congressional District receive food stamps. Sonny Perdue, the agriculture secretary, explained the change saying, “We need to encourage people by giving them a helping hand but not allowing it to become an indefinitely giving hand.” New York Senator Chuck Schumer disagreed. “The Trump administration is driving the vulnerable into hunger just as the Christmas season approaches,” he said Dec. 4. “It is heartless. It is cruel. It exposes a deep and shameful cruelness and hypocrisy in this administration.” Read more about this story in The New York Times.