[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 62 (Tuesday, April 17, 2018)]
[House]
[Page H3351]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    REJECT THE REPUBLICAN FARM BILL

  (Mr. McGOVERN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow the House Agriculture Committee 
will mark up the Republican farm bill. This incredibly partisan 
proposal was drafted in secret. Almost nothing in the bill reflects the 
23 hearings our committee held on SNAP.
  We heard from 90 experts, and not a single one of them, liberal or 
conservative, suggested eliminating State flexibility through broad-
based categorical eligibility and worsening the benefit cliff.
  Not a single one of them said to us: Kick 400,000 working families 
out of the program and 265,000 children off of free school meals.
  Not a single one of them told us to add hurdles for families with 
heating and cooling costs, and not a single one suggested we kick 
vulnerable adults off of benefits when they can't find work.
  Yet that is exactly what this bill does. The reckless Republican 
proposals in this bill cut SNAP benefits by over $20 billion, reducing 
or eliminating benefits for 2 million kids, veterans, working families, 
and other vulnerable adults.
  Make no mistake, this bill will make hunger worse in our country. I 
plead with the Republican leadership of this House: Stop beating up on 
poor people.

                          ____________________