[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 35 (Tuesday, February 27, 2018)]
[House]
[Page H1321]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      SNAP PROVIDES FOOD SECURITY

  (Mr. PANETTA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PANETTA. Mr. Speaker, for 40 years, Congress has funded the 
bipartisan Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
  For close to 42 million Americans, SNAP provides food security and 
the freedom to choose what you want to eat, from fresh fruits and 
vegetables to milk and meat, to sandwich bread and even ice cream 
sandwiches.
  But last week, the Trump administration released a budget proposal 
that would gut this critical lifeline by a third and completely change 
what food they get and how they get it.
  Instead of being able to go to the store and select fresh food at the 
supermarket, the corner market, the rural market, or even the farmer's 
market, half the benefits would now come in a periodic delivery of a 
cardboard box filled with cheap peanut butter, canned goods, uncooked 
pasta, dry cereal, and something called shelf-stable milk.
  I get that we want to get people who can work to work, but on the 
central coast of California, 63,000 people rely on over $127 million 
worth of SNAP benefits to meet their own family's needs.
  Those same benefits provide local businesses with over $227 million 
in economic activity. That is why the administration's proposal to 
change SNAP won't work for the families and the store owners that I 
represent, and it will not work for many of the Americans that you 
represent.

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