[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 134 (Wednesday, October 2, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H6109-H6110]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   DAY TWO OF THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) for 5 minutes.

[[Page H6110]]

  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, today is day two of the Republican 
government shutdown. It is day two of the Republicans throwing a temper 
tantrum because they don't have the votes to overturn the Affordable 
Care Act. They have chosen to hold the Federal Government hostage in 
order to placate a small, reckless, extreme faction of their 
conference. It's shameful and it needs to stop.
  Already, National Parks are closed, Head Start facilities are 
beginning to close, and paychecks to Federal employees could be 
delayed. And if closing Head Start facilities wasn't bad enough, 
shutting the government down could cause great harm to pregnant women, 
infants, and children.
  That's right, Mr. Speaker. Pregnant women, infants, and children will 
begin feeling the impacts of this Republican shutdown as funding for 
the WIC program begins to lapse. There are nearly 9 million pregnant 
and breastfeeding women, infants, and children on WIC. Nine million 
low-income people receive healthy food and nutrition education from 
this important and vital program.
  WIC is a critical program that provides food and nutrition counseling 
for low-income pregnant and breastfeeding women, as well as newborns 
and infants. It is a key program that helps pregnant and breastfeeding 
women stay healthy through proper nutrition and actually helps prevent 
many health issues associated with nonnutritious meals.
  In about a week, funding for WIC will dry up. Funding for food and 
nutrition education for low-income women and their children will be 
eliminated. Some States will see their funds dry up right away; and 
some, like Massachusetts, have budgeted in a way that will allow them 
to patch funds together to prevent major shortfalls only for a couple 
of weeks.
  I come to this floor week after week to talk about how we can end 
hunger now. A few weeks ago, this House of Representatives cut SNAP, 
formerly known as food stamps, by $39 billion. Year after year, Budget 
Committee Chairman Paul Ryan tries to block grant SNAP, a $130 billion 
cut in the program. And a few years ago, the Agriculture Appropriations 
Subcommittee, chaired then by the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. 
Kingston), attempted to cut WIC by hundreds of millions of dollars.
  There's a pattern here of trying to balance the budget on the backs 
of the poor, on the backs of the hungry. There's a pattern here of 
saying to people who are struggling to make ends meet that they just 
don't matter.
  The Republicans, who are forcing this government shutdown--those 
Republicans who are cheering on a government shutdown like cheerleaders 
at a pep rally--are inflicting real damage on real Americans. And those 
on the front lines are, unfortunately, poor women and their children.
  We're not going to end hunger now by painting a target on their backs 
and using them to balance our budgets. Income disparity is currently at 
its greatest gap since the Great Depression. Hunger is not getting any 
better in this country. Yet the Republicans in the House think it's 
okay to take food away from hungry people, including veterans and kids, 
just because they don't like those programs.
  The cut in food stamps that we debated and voted on a couple of weeks 
ago would throw 170,000 of our veterans off the program--men and women 
who have served our country in battle. They'll be cut from the program.
  What they are doing is wrong. It takes my breath away, Mr. Speaker.
  Ending hunger requires real leadership and not letting some right-
wing zealots eviscerate the Federal budget so that the hungry in 
America don't have the ability to put food on their tables. What is 
happening here is cold. It is heartless. It is unconscionable.
  We should be working to end hunger now instead of shutting down the 
Federal Government. The low-income women, infants, and children of this 
country deserve a hell of a lot better than they're getting from this 
Republican-led House of Representatives.

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