[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 27 (Friday, February 18, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E275]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             FULL-YEAR CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2011

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                               speech of

                          HON. ROSA L. DeLAURO

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 15, 2011

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 1) making 
     appropriations for the Department of Defense and the other 
     departments and agencies of the Government for the fiscal 
     year ending September 30, 2011, and for other purposes:

  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the cuts to the 
Agriculture and FDA budget in H.R. 1. They are rashly made, and they 
will endanger both our food supply and our families.
  During my time as Chair of this subcommittee, we worked hard to 
provide the resources to better improve the safety of food, drugs and 
devices. We expanded access to fundamental nutrition and hunger 
programs. And we invested wisely in key areas like conservation and 
rural development. This continuing resolution threatens to undo all of 
our hard work.
  Instead of cutting special interest waste, like the subsidies that go 
to high-income farmers and corporate farms, this continuing resolution 
hurts everyone else. It hurts the economy, will cost us jobs, and it 
threatens the middle-class and working families we were elected to 
represent.
  We are already playing a dangerous game in terms of food safety--Far 
too many of the dishes on our kitchen table get there uninspected. But 
under this continuing resolution, there would be 2000 fewer firm 
inspections--and 10,000 fewer import inspections--conducted by the FDA.
  In fact, both the FDA and USDA would have to furlough thousands of 
inspectors under this plan. That is more than just a food safety 
problem. It means the nearly 6,300 meat and poultry plants across 
America would be legally required to stop operating--costing 
approximately $11 billion. And it would mean, by the basic principles 
of the market, that the price of meat and poultry would increase for 
every single family in America.
  In addition, this CR rolls back the budget of the Farm Service 
Agency--forcing a 40 day furlough of all employees and meaning long 
delays and less help for farmers and ranchers.
  In cuts food aid to the lowest it has been in a decade, 15 million 
people would lose desperately-needed emergency food assistance, which 
will endanger our war efforts and the security of our troops in 
Afghanistan. And 2.5 million more women and children lose the vital aid 
provided by McGovern-Dole, a program with long bipartisan support.
  There are many terrible ideas in this CR, but perhaps the unkindest 
cut of all is what will be done to the Commodity Supplemental Food 
Program and the Women with Infant Children feeding program. Instead of 
slashing subsidies for oil companies and saving $40 billion, the 
majority has decided to deny over 100,000 low-income seniors from 
receiving food packages, and cut almost $750 million from WIC, a 
program serving our most vulnerable citizens.
  They are quite literally taking food from hungry seniors and 
children's mouths, and giving it to the special interests--corporate 
farms and oil companies--who write their checks. It is unconscionable.
  I urge my colleagues to vote against these reckless and irresponsible 
cuts, and to work together on a budget that better reflects our 
priorities as a nation.

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