TENS of thousands will emerge from Hurricane Katrina in the direst of economic circumstances, evidence of the many Americans hovering on the economic edge, vulnerable to catastrophe.

The Census Bureau counts nearly 36 million Americans living below the poverty line. Despite our relative prosperity, the numbers of the poor are going up. More than four decades after President Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty, an uphill battle continues.

Congress is poised to make deep cuts in programs that provide food stamps, Medicaid and federal student loans. This will serve no other purpose than to exacerbate the problem. More than 25 million people depend on the Food Stamp Program each month to help feed their children, including 520,000 people in Washington state.

When Congress returns from vacation, leaders ought to rally around protecting the Food Stamp Program from up to $3 billion in anticipated cuts and structural changes. This task deserves heightened priority because the House and Senate agriculture committees are expected to make a decision on the cuts by Sept. 16.

Studies on the Food Stamp Program have show an efficient program in which more than 98 percent of benefits go to eligible families and with an error rate at an all-time low. Currently, the average food-stamp benefit is 95 cents per person per meal. Feeding people for so little is a bargain that ought to be maintained.

Former Democratic vice-presidential candidate John Edwards recently visited Seattle to raise awareness about poverty. Now running the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina School of Law, Edwards called the growing numbers of the poor one of the great moral issues of our time.

He is right. America ought to respond to this moral dilemma with compassion.