[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 23, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H4587-H4588]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               PROFESSOR SLOCUM AND THE SOCIAL SAFETY NET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
Jersey (Mr. Payne) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, I ask that my colleagues join me in honoring 
the life and legacy of Rutgers Law School Professor Alfred Slocum.
  Professor Slocum was a titan in the legal and civil rights 
communities. While still a student at Rutgers Law, he spoke out on 
behalf of minorities and people of color. He worked with professors and 
other students to help create the Rutgers Law Minority Student Program, 
which is the most extensive and renowned program to train minority 
lawyers in this country.
  During his career, Professor Slocum served many roles in the legal 
profession and in the public service sector. He was an executive 
director of the Council on Legal Education Opportunity. He served as 
public advocate of the State of New Jersey in 1986 and, later that 
year, was appointed public defender.
  For 5 years, Professor Slocum championed the causes of the voiceless 
and the indigent. Then in 1990, he returned to law school, where he 
taught until retiring from the faculty in 2001.
  I speak for myself, for the city of Newark, and for the State of New 
Jersey when I say that Professor Slocum's life was well lived. I ask my 
colleagues to join me in honor of this great man's legacy.
  Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, Professor Alfred Slocum was a champion 
for the voiceless and for people in need. Mr. Speaker, the people who 
are in the greatest need in this country rely on our social safety net 
for food, for shelter, for healthcare, and for many necessities that 
help them scrape by. We cannot leave them to despair.
  These people are not just a statistic. They are not just an idea. 
They are human beings. They are Americans.

[[Page H4588]]

They are people who just need a helping hand.
  I have said this before, but let me say it again. I have never met a 
person who wakes up in the morning and says, ``I want to be poor 
today.'' That is just not a reality.
  Let me add this. I have never met a person who wakes up at 5 a.m. to 
go to her first job, comes home at 1 p.m. to take a nap, and heads out 
to her second job at 4 p.m., yet still lives paycheck to paycheck, 
still relies on SNAP and Medicaid to make ends meet, but thinks to 
herself, ``I like to struggle.'' She does not exist, because that is 
just not how the world works.
  Programs like SNAP, Medicaid, housing assistance, our entire social 
safety net is a supplement that helps people struggle just a little bit 
less.
  Yet my colleagues across the aisle and their friends in the White 
House keep pushing the false narrative that people who rely on 
government assistance to make ends meet are just freeloaders who take 
advantage of the government handouts and buy drugs. The majority party 
and the 45th President keep pushing their callous, immoral narrative in 
order to tear apart the social safety net.
  Mr. Speaker, the United States Government should be making it easier 
for Americans to maintain a decent standard of living. We have to 
protect our most vulnerable and those who are in need. Let us end this 
administration's war on the working poor and help make lives better for 
our constituents.
  The American people deserve A Better Deal.

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