Combat of the Backlog

“State OKs staff to ease food stamp backlogs, finally,” by Lisa Falkenberg, located in the Houston Chronicle, is a piece about how Texas is trying to ease the backlog of food stamp recipients. Texas is finally attempting to correct the issue due to pressure from the national government to cut funds, and class action law suits filed against the state. The plan is to hire at least 650 employees to begin tackling the backlog. The state also plans to use this leeway to keep open positions to account for turnovers, or another surge in caseloads. The large caseload is due to the failing economy, and more people turning to aide to make ends meet. The intended audience of the piece is for people who have wanted Texas government to do something about the backlog. Ms. Falkenberg seems to be a credible source, she explains why backlog is such an issue, and also provides facts of why there is such a backlog. She writes “Last month alone, 371,475 Harris County residents received $48.1 million worth of food stamps. Most of the recipients were children. Nearly 62,000 more Harris County residents are getting food stamp help today than two years ago before the economy turned sour,” this show the reader that she factually knows how many people are on assistance, and why more of the population is looking to assistance. The author also proves her credibility by stating that even though the passed measure is a good thing it will still take time to completely get over the mounds of backlog. By the author saying this, the reader is not tricked into thinking that this is an immediate change, but one that will take several months to a year to correct. The audience can defiantly conclude that the author is for this change simply by the title “State OKs staff to ease food stamp backlogs, finally, “and also the comment “It appears the state leaders made good on their word.” The words “made good” and “finally” suggest that this is something that the author wants that is finally going to go through.

I agree with the author that the backlog and errors need to be tackled. The aid needs to be readily available to the people who need it. Also, with backlog comes more need. Possible recipients of the aid fall deeper and deeper into poverty as they cannot excess the proper funds. The funds that are supposed to boost them out of a bad economic time become more dependent on the funds because they continue to deplete their own funds to survive.