[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 10 (Thursday, January 16, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E92]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SNAP)

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                          HON. DANNY K. DAVIS

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 16, 2014

  Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, cutting the Supplemental 
Nutrition Assistance Program will adversely affect poor people and 
lower benefits to households with children. SNAP helps families obtain 
nutritious and healthy foods. This anti-hunger program is immensely 
effective in providing assistance to a minimum of 46 million 
individuals and families across America. In addition to food benefits, 
SNAP educates ways to use food dollars wisely and live a healthier 
lifestyle by promoting the importance of nutrition. A key component of 
SNAP is their ``No Kid Hungry'' campaign, which, aims at fighting 
against childhood hunger in America by partnering with communities to 
enroll eligible families with half of the program recipients being 
children. Reducing spending over the next few years by billions of 
dollars will affect the lives of Americans who depend on these programs 
to help put food on the table for their families.
  Currently, the legislative language included in the House farm bill, 
would develop unintended consequences resulting in ancillary hardships 
to our neediest population. Given our nation's economic recovery, high 
unemployment rate, and the wide prevalence of food insecurity among 
children, all are directly problematic to the SNAP program. Every $1 in 
SNAP new benefits would generate up to $1.80 in economic activity. 
Every time a family uses SNAP benefits for healthy food on the table, 
it benefits the store and the employees where the purchase was made 
including the truck driver who delivered the food, the warehouses that 
stored it, the plant that processed it, and the farmer who produced the 
food. Each $1 billion increase in SNAP benefits is estimated to create 
and maintain 18,000 full time jobs including 3,000 farm jobs. SNAP 
benefits have a powerful anti-poverty effect that the Census Bureau 
reports would lift 3.9 million Americans--including 1.7 million 
children--out of poverty. SNAP alleviates hunger and improves nutrition 
by increasing the food purchasing power of low-income households, 
enabling them to obtain a more nutritious diet that contributes to the 
prevention of obesity, diseases, and food insecurity.
  Cutting funding is a threat to SNAP's mission to alleviate the health 
problems many children face in America. Studies indicate that children 
who are provided with healthier food are less likely to develop health 
problems and more likely to excel better in school. Sixty-two percent 
of teachers in a survey said that they have children in their 
classrooms that come to school hungry regularly because they are not 
getting enough food to eat at home.

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