[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 47 (Tuesday, March 25, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H2615-H2616]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             END HUNGER NOW

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, earlier this year the House voted on the 
farm bill conference report, legislation that reauthorizes our Nation's 
agriculture policies as well as the preeminent antihunger program known 
as SNAP. I voted against the conference report both as a conferee and 
when it came before this House because it contained an $8.6 billion cut 
to SNAP. Even worse, it was the second major cut to SNAP in less than 6 
months.
  I strongly believe in our Nation's antihunger programs. 
Unfortunately, there are about 49 million hungry people living in our 
great Nation. Technically known as food insecurity, the truth is that 
these are low-income people who don't know where their next meal will 
come from. America's antihunger programs, led by SNAP, provide food to 
people who otherwise would have difficulty finding it, if they were 
able to find access to food at all.
  For years, I have talked about how SNAP works, and over the past 
year, I have led these End Hunger Now speeches about how SNAP and other 
antihunger programs are working to reduce hunger in our country. That 
is why these two SNAP cuts, the cut in November 2013 and the cut in the 
farm bill, were not just disappointing, but they were actually 
damaging. We saw real cuts to real people.
  For example, look at Luis Marin, who was profiled in the New York 
Daily News:

       Food stamp cuts have dealt a double blow to Luis Marin and 
     his family. Marin's hours have been cut from 30 to 20 hours a 
     week at Red Apple Deli Supermarket in uptown's Hamilton 
     Heights, where his boss, Ramon Murphy, is losing business 
     because of the food stamp cutbacks. And Marin, 56, his wife, 
     and their two little girls--who subsist on his $8-an-hour 
     income--also saw their food stamps benefits drop to $397 a 
     month in November and have had to change their eating habits.


[[Page H2616]]


  It is not just low-income families in our urban areas; military 
families are using SNAP more than ever. In fact, military families used 
food stamps more in fiscal year 2013 than in any other year. Members of 
the military redeemed almost $104 million worth of food stamps over 
that time, about $5 million more than the previous year.
  The thing many of my colleagues don't seem to understand is that cuts 
to SNAP don't just change the amount of money the Federal Government 
spends. As you can see from the case that I highlighted with Mr. Marin, 
these cuts hurt real American people. We are taking food away from 
children and away from poor families.
  That is why I am pleased that seven of our Nation's Governors are 
taking the courageous stand that this Congress wouldn't take. The cut 
included in the farm bill was harmful, but it only affected 17 States. 
That is because it only dealt with a program called Heat and Eat, a 
program that linked LIHEAP and SNAP together. The farm bill changed the 
way States could continue participating in that program. Essentially, 
States could continue if they increased the State contribution from $1 
to $20 in LIHEAP benefits. These seven States--Connecticut, 
Massachusetts, Montana, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Rhode 
Island--are playing by the new rules Congress established in the farm 
bill, and thankfully, they are saying that they are not going to let 
low-income food insecure people in their State feel the pain of these 
cuts, even if Congress is going to cruelly and cowardly cut SNAP in the 
name of deficit reduction.
  I sit on the Agriculture Committee, and I remember when the committee 
didn't have the votes to abolish the Heat and Eat Program entirely. The 
$20 level was supported by the chairman of the committee and is now the 
law of the land. Yet the distinguished Speaker of this House continues 
to say that States are somehow cheating when all they are doing is 
following the law that he shepherded through this House. Perhaps he 
didn't read the bill, or perhaps he doesn't understand the fact that 
there are millions and millions of people in this country who are 
hungry.
  I want to commend the Governors of these States, including the 
Republican Governor of Pennsylvania and the Governor of my home State 
of Massachusetts, for doing the right thing and taking action to 
prevent these cuts from taking effect and preventing their citizens 
from going hungry.
  I am grateful to these Governors and the Governors of 10 other States 
who are still working to enact this change in law, and for taking the 
actions that many in this Congress simply did not take. I say ``thank 
you'' to the Governors for preventing hunger from getting worse in 
those States. Hopefully, they can be an example for all of us in 
Congress.
  Mr. Speaker, we were elected to help people. These cutbacks in SNAP 
and other nutrition programs have hurt our fellow citizens. These cuts 
are unconscionable. They are a rotten thing to do. We in this Congress 
and the leadership of this Congress have to stop beating up on poor 
people, have to stop diminishing their struggle. Surely we can come 
together in a bipartisan way and agree that hunger is not acceptable in 
the richest country in the history of the world. We need to end hunger 
now, not make it worse. So let's come together and end hunger now.

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