[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 166 (Wednesday, November 20, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H7256-H7257]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       CUTS TO SNAP HURT VETERANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, next week is Thanksgiving. All of us in 
this Chamber will go back to our districts, and we will celebrate this 
holiday with our families, usually with a big turkey dinner with all of 
the fixings and with all of these wonderful desserts; but, Mr. Speaker, 
for millions and millions of Americans, they won't have anything to 
celebrate next week because they don't have enough to put food on their 
tables for their families. There are close to 50 million people in the 
United States of America--the richest country in the history of the 
world--who are hungry. Close to 17 million of them are kids.
  Mr. Speaker, in the face of these terrible statistics, we have a 
Congress that is working overtime to make life for many of these people 
even more miserable. There has already been a cut in SNAP as a result 
of the ending of the Recovery Act moneys that provided an extra boost 
to the program. So everybody who is on this program, on November 1, 
received a cut in their benefit--a benefit that is, on average, about 
$1.50 per meal per day. They received a cut. On top of that, the House 
of Representatives passed a farm bill that has an additional $40 
billion cut in this program.
  That would result in millions of families who currently receive the 
benefit losing it altogether. It would result in hundreds of thousands 
of children who right now are able to take advantage of a free 
breakfast and lunch program at school to lose that benefit. It would 
also result in about 170,000 veterans losing the benefit.
  So I want to talk a little bit today about our veterans and about how 
they are being adversely impacted by some of the policies that we are 
pursuing here in the House of Representatives.
  On November 1, Jonathan Capehart of The Washington Post wrote a 
column entitled, ``Oh, SNAP. Veterans Get Dissed by the GOP.'' I want 
to read the first few paragraphs of his piece:

       Remember all the howling by Republicans about the closed 
     monuments and war memorials during the Ted Cruz government 
     shutdown? Remember how they helped World War II vets storm 
     their memorial on the very first day? Remember how one of the 
     Members of Congress snarled at a Park Service ranger for 
     trying to abide by the law and keep the memorial closed to 
     the public? Remember how the likes of Cruz and Sarah Palin 
     railed against President Obama for the cuts to veterans' 
     benefits that resulted from the Cruz-caused shutdown?
       ``Our veterans should be above political games,'' Cruz said 
     at the Million Vets March on October 13. ``Veterans have 
     proven they are not timid, and we will not be timid in 
     calling out anybody that uses the military as pawns.'' Palin 
     said at the same event, ``We can only be America, home of the 
     free, if we are America, home of the brave.''
       So, pardon the forthcoming blue language: Where the hell 
     are they now that a multi-billion-dollar cut to the food 
     stamp program has hit thousands of veterans squarely in their 
     wallets?

  He is referring to the cut that occurred on November 1.

       According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 
     ``In any given month, a total of 900,000 veterans nationwide 
     lived in households that relied on SNAP, the Supplemental 
     Nutrition Assistance Program, to provide food for their 
     families.''
       In any given year or in any given month, millions and 
     millions of dollars of SNAP funds are spent at military 
     commissaries to help feed military members and their families 
     who struggle against hunger.

  Mr. Speaker, I raise this issue because there seems to be somewhat of 
a contradiction here in this people's House of Representatives. We are 
all very good at kind of talking the talk. People get up time and time 
again, and they talk about how important and how wonderful our veterans 
are. We all go back to our districts on Veterans Day and on Memorial 
Day, and we praise our veterans, and we thank them for their service to 
their country and for their sacrifice; but when it comes to making sure 
that our veterans have enough to eat, that they have enough food to put 
on their tables for their families, we are worse than indifferent in 
this House of Representatives. We are making things worse for them.
  If this cut that the House of Representatives passed goes into 
effect--this $40 billion cut in SNAP--as I said, 170,000 veterans and 
their families will lose their benefit altogether. This is on top of a 
cut in their benefit that they have already received.

                              {time}  1015

  I don't know what people think is meant by praising our veterans. But 
instead of talking the talk, we ought to walk the walk a little bit 
more. We ought to make sure that the men and women who served our 
country, who this Congress voted to send over to Iraq and send over to 
Afghanistan, we ought to ensure that when they come back that they at 
least have enough to eat. Many veterans that come back have a tough 
time getting back into the workforce, and yet some of the language that 
was put in the House farm bill would actually make it almost impossible 
for them to get this benefit.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues as we approach Thanksgiving to not 
forget our veterans.

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