The House and Senate Agriculture Committees are scheduled to make their deficit reduction proposals to the Select or Super Committee on Deficit Reduction in Washington. The Rev. David Beckmann, co-winner of last year’s World Food Prize, made an impassioned plea for avoiding more cuts in food assistance programs during a press briefing at this year’s WFP Symposium in Des Moines. Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, says the food safety net is working in this country and in regions like Africa, but the cuts threaten the progress made in recent years.