[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 93 (Friday, June 27, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6780-S6781]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      BALANCED BUDGET ACT OF 1997


                           Amendment No. 450

 Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I am pleased to join my 
colleague in offering this amendment.
  Last year during the welfare reform debate, as part of the effort to 
balance the budget, the 104th Congress made dramatic cuts to programs 
for low-income families. According to the Center on Budget and Policy 
Priorities, more than 93 percent of the cuts in entitlement programs in 
the 104th Congress came from programs for low-income people. Congress 
reduced entitlement programs by $65.6 billion over the period from 1996 
to 2002.
  I am deeply concerned about the extent to which legal immigrants are 
being harmed under the Welfare Reform act. The Act cut $22 billion in 
services to legal immigrants--a full 44 percent of the overall 
legislation.
  The House Ways and Means Committee reconciliation mark provided the 
least generous allocation of funding for legal immigrants as compared 
to the budget agreement and the Senate Finance Committee mark. The $9 
billion allocation in the Ways and Means mark violates the budget 
agreement, and it covers fewer people. Since it does not cover those 
who, in the future, could be eligible for SSI assistance, it will leave 
many without any means of support. According to the Social Security 
Administration, 125,000 fewer people will be served by the House 
agreement compared to the Budget Agreement. In Minnesota it puts 1,145 
elderly immigrants at risk of losing benefits.
  Moreover, it puts an additional 161,000 people at risk of losing 
their benefits because their citizenship is unknown or difficult to 
prove. Probably the worst provision in this agreement is that it makes 
an inhumane and irrational distinction among disabled people based on 
an arbitrary date on the calendar. If you were disabled and receiving 
SSI on August 22, 1996, then you retain eligibility. If not, there is 
no hope for receiving future benefits.
  The Durbin/Wellstone amendment restores food stamp benefits to legal 
immigrant families with children 18 years old and under at a cost of 
$750 million over 5 years. Our offset is achieved by placing limits on 
the amount of Federal money that States can use to offset their cost 
share requirements in the food stamp and Medicaid programs. Our 
amendment would take a small step toward addressing the use of these 
funds and target the savings into food stamp benefits for legal 
immigrants who have dependent children. Over 5 years, we hope to save 
$1 billion, which fully covers the cost of restoring food stamp 
benefits.
  Unlike other low-income families in this country, legal immigrants 
are banned from receiving food stamp benefits. Food stamps are the 
Nation's largest and most successful food assistance program and cuts 
to this program made up half of the savings in last year's welfare 
reform effort. According to CBO, 17 percent of the immigrants receiving 
food stamps are children. This means more than 150,000 children have 
lost access to this critical program. In Minnesota roughly 15,900 
individuals are expected to lose food stamp benefits. According to INS, 
most of these immigrant families will naturalize within 10 years, 
making them eligible to apply for food stamps. CBO estimates that it 
will cost $750 million to restore food stamp benefits for children 18 
years and under. Senator Durbin and I have provided an offset that 
achieves that amount over 5 years. No matter what your position on the 
overall budget deal, you must agree that no purpose is served by 
denying children food.
  According to the Food Research and Action Center, approximately 13.6 
million children under age 12 are at risk of hunger during some part of 
the year. FRAC reports that although families who face real issues of 
hunger may not be hungry every day of the month, or even every month of 
the year, the hunger affecting most low-income families is not a one-
time or infrequent occurrence. It is characterized--and this is 
according to FRAC--by food shortages and chronic insecurity about 
whether the family will have enough food.
  We are now benefiting from scientific research that points to the 
significance of the early years on development of the brain. A 
consistently nutritious diet is one of the most important if not the 
most important ingredient to a child reaching his or her potential. In 
a 1995 study entitled Community Childhood Hunger Identification 
Project; a Survey of Childhood Hunger in the United States, FRAC 
determined that undernourished children suffer from two to four times 
as many health problems. I quote from the survey:

       Hungry children are more likely to be ill and absent from 
     school.
       The infant mortality rate is closely linked to inadequate 
     quantity or quality in the diet of the infant's mother.
       Iron deficiency anemia in children can lead to adverse 
     health effects such as developmental and behavioral 
     disturbances that can affect children's ability to learn and 
     to read or do mathematics. According to the Centers for 
     Disease Control, anemia remains a significant health problem 
     among low-income children.
       Hungry children are less likely to interact with other 
     people or to explore or learn from their surroundings. This 
     interferes with their ability to learn from a very early age.

[[Page S6781]]

       According to the Tufts University Center on Hunger, Poverty 
     and Nutrition Policy, evidence from recent research about 
     child nutrition shows that, in addition to having a 
     detrimental effect on the cognitive development of children, 
     undernutrition results in lost knowledge, brainpower, and 
     productivity.
       Hunger and insecurity about whether a family will be able 
     to obtain enough food to avoid hunger, also have an emotional 
     impact on children and their parents. Anxiety, negative 
     feelings about self-worth, and hostility toward the outside 
     world can result from chronic hunger and food insecurity.

  The food stamp is designed to reach those families most in need and 
there is plenty of evidence that the children most at risk of hunger 
are in poor or low-income families. A 1996-study reported about 6.1 
million children under 6 were living in poverty in 1994. An additional 
4.8 million young children lived near the poverty line, according to 
Columbia University's National Center for Children in Poverty. Sixty-
two percent of poor children lived with at least one parent or relative 
who worked. Fewer than one-third of the children's families relied 
exclusively on welfare. The poverty rate grew fastest among Hispanic 
children, rising 43 percent since 1979, compared with a 38-percent rise 
among white children and 19 percent among black children.
  Last year's reform banned legal immigrant families with dependent 
children from food stamp benefits. This amendment is about restoring 
critical food assistance to those children. We cannot say we are for 
children and then turn our backs on legal immigrant children. This 
amendment is reasonable. It's paid for and it makes imminent 
sense.

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