U.S. senator criticizes use of HHS money to subsidize KCK fast-food development
A Republican senator from Arizona is hoping to ban a federal agency from subsidizing the construction of fast-food franchises, with a development in the Argentine neighborhood in Kansas City, Kan., as his major concern.
On the Senate floor Thursday, U.S Sen. Jeff Flake lamented that the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services is subsidizing “fast-food franchises in a Kansas county that year after year ranks as one of the state’s most unhealthy.”
This project contradicts the mission of HHS “to enhance and protect the health and well-being of all Americans,” Flake said.
He later added that “it is really just corporate welfare for three of the top ten most profitable fast-food franchises in the U.S., each of which earns billions of dollars a year in profits.”
A $1.23 million grant from Health and Human Services is the largest single source of funds for the KCK fast-food project, which is to include a Wendy’s, Pizza Hut and Dunkin’ Donuts.
The grant had been awarded to the Argentine Neighborhood Development Association. The association’s executive director, Unified Government Commissioner Ann Brandau-Murguia, did not immediately return a request for comment after Flake’s speech.
Jon Stephens, director of economic development for the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kan., said discussions about the proposed project have continued.
“But there is no current agreement or schedule to bring it forward” to the commission at this point, Stephens said.
Flake’s amendment to ban the subsidy concerned legislation that would provide funding for the departments of Defense, Labor, Education and Health and Human Services for fiscal 2019, according to the senator’s office.
“The Senate has invoked cloture to cut off debate on the bill so it looks like the amendment will not be considered, but we will look for other legislative vehicles to revisit the issue in the future,” a Flake staffer said in an email to The Star.
This story was originally published August 23, 2018 at 2:29 PM.