[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 122 (Tuesday, September 17, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H5575]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM

  (Ms. DUCKWORTH asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. Speaker, several weeks ago, we had a deeply 
partisan debate about cuts to SNAP. The proposed cuts by the majority 
were then $20 billion--a number that many of my colleagues and I found 
unacceptable and rejected. The majority has now doubled these cuts to 
$40 billion a year--nine times the amount passed in a bipartisan vote 
in the Senate. They have abandoned all attempts at bipartisanship and 
compromise to satisfy the unreasonable demands of the far right.
  Mr. Speaker, we should not be playing politics with a program that 
means so much to American families. The $40 billion in cuts will slash 
benefits to as many as 6 million Americans, including 170,000 veterans. 
The average benefit for SNAP is only $4.50 a day--just $1.50 a meal.
  As someone who benefited from food stamps when I was a teenager, I 
know what the safety net means. This benefit is the difference between 
a child going to bed hungry or having the energy to focus on school. It 
is the safety net that allows low-income seniors to be able to both eat 
and afford medication. In my district, the poverty rate rose from 5.3 
percent in 2000 to 9.2 percent in 2011. We need to be finding ways to 
reduce poverty in our communities, not cutting programs that work, like 
SNAP.

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