[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 52 (Tuesday, March 21, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H3335]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


   PICK ON SOMEONE YOUR OWN SIZE: KID'S VOICES HEARD AT CAPITOL RALLY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 1995, the gentlewoman from California [Ms. Pelosi] is 
recognized during morning business for 2 minutes.
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, Sunday was a beautiful day at the Capitol 
because 2,000 children from all over this area from West Virginia to 
Pennsylvania came to oppose cuts in the school lunch programs proposed 
by the Republican majority. It was reported as the children's crusade 
against Republican budget cuts. Despite bus rides for as long as 5 
hours, the children were very eloquent indeed.
  A 10-year-old with the distinguished name of Touissant L'Ouvertuo 
Tingling-Clemmons said, ``Children have to say no to a lot of things. 
Food should not be one of them.''
  Chastity Crites from West Virginia, a daughter of a construction 
worker, said she does not eat if he, her father, does not work except 
for school lunches.
  A sixth grader from southeast Washington said, Marche was her name, 
``The food tastes so good and sometimes when we get to school we are 
hungry. Why would they cut school lunches?''
  Why would they indeed? The issue of hunger in our country has never 
been a debatable one and indeed feeding the hungry has always enjoyed 
bipartisan support. In 1946 President Truman signed the Federal School 
Lunch Program into law. President Richard Nixon later said a child ill-
fed is dulled in curiosity, lower in stamina and distracted in 
learning.
  Why then is the Republican majority putting on the House table a 
proposal which will take food off the cafeteria table for America's 
children?
  The extreme Republican proposal will cut, I repeat, it will cut the 
number of poor children who benefit from the program. It will cut the 
School Lunch Program benefits because it says that States must spend 
only 80 percent of the Federal school lunch funds on school lunches 
because it removes nutritional standards and removes eligibility 
requirements.
  Mr. Speaker, this proposal will hurt our children, weaken our future 
and dim the prospects for our future. I urge our colleagues to think 
again about the Republican proposal to cut the School Lunch Program.


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