[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 114 (Thursday, August 5, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1793]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


FOOD STAMP OUTREACH AND RESEARCH FOR KIDS ACT OF 1999 (FORK) WILL KEEP 
                       CHILDREN FROM GOING HUNGRY

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. WILLIAM J. COYNE

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, August 5, 1999

  Mr. COYNE. Mr. Speaker, today Representative Sander Levin and I are 
introducing legislation to make sure that children in America do not go 
hungry. In 1998, over 14 million children lived in households that 
couldn't always afford to buy food. That was an increase of almost 4 
million children over 1997. At the same time, the number of poor 
children not getting Food Stamps reached its highest level in a decade. 
Our bill, the Food Stamp Outreach and Research for Kids Act of 1999 
(FORK), would help us give children who are currently going hungry the 
Food Stamps they need.
  Some time ago, our local food banks started telling me that the 
number of people coming to them for help was increasing. They were 
concerned that they might run out of food if the demand kept going up. 
When we asked them who the new people coming to the food bank were, 
they said they were mostly low-income working families. When the food 
bank screened people using the eligibility guidelines, it looked like 
most of the new people who came to the Food Bank should have been 
receiving Food Stamps but were not.
  Because of those reports and others like them, Sander Levin and I 
asked the General Accounting Office to investigate and determine 
whether Food Stamp-eligible families wee losing benefits, the cause of 
any declines, and what impact declines were having on children.
  GAO recently finished its investigation, which confirmed many of the 
anecdotal reports. While a number of people have left the Food Stamp 
program because of the improved economy, economic growth alone does not 
explain the drop in Food Stamp participation. GAO found that demand for 
emergency and supplemental food was increasing and that some state 
agencies were not following federal laws regarding Food Stamp benefits. 
Perhaps most disturbing of all, GAO found that almost half of the 
people who have lost Food Stamps since 1996 are children.
  Our bill, the Food Stamp Outreach and Research for Kids Act of 1999 
(FORK), is designed to address GAO's findings and recommendations.
  FORK would provide grant funding to food banks, schools, health 
clinics, local governments, and other entities that interact with 
working families. The grants would allow those organizations to develop 
and expand innovative approaches to Food Stamp outreach, which would 
help the Food and Nutrition Service enroll many of the eligible 
families that currently go hungry.
  FORK would also require the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) to 
conduct on-site inspections of state Food Stamp programs to identify 
barriers to enrollment and work with states to develop corrective 
action plans.
  FORK would authorize FNS to conduct research which will help it 
improve access, formulate nutrition policy, and measure program impacts 
and integrity.
  FORK would require the Departments of Agriculture and Health and 
Human Services to work with state Temporary Aid to Needy Families 
(TANF) programs to retrain caseworkers and make sure that prospective 
and former TANF recipients are informed about their Food Stamp 
eligibility.
  Finally, FORK would authorize FNS to form public-private partnerships 
to expand its nutrition education program.
  I hope our colleagues will join us in supporting this important 
legislation. I do not believe that anyone in Congress ever intended for 
children to go hungry because their parents left welfare and went to 
work. Now that we know it is happening, it is our responsibility to act 
quickly to make the Food Stamp program work for families in need.

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