[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 114 (Tuesday, July 14, 2026)]
[House]
[Pages H4418-H4419]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1100
                     HUNGER IS NOT A POSITIVE TREND

  (Mr. Costa of California was recognized to address the House for 5 
minutes.)
  Mr. COSTA. Madam Speaker, as our Nation continues to commemorate our 
250th anniversary, we are reminded that the ideals on which America was 
founded are as critical today as they were then: a nation built on a 
promise that every person has dignity and that no one should be left 
behind--the land of opportunity.
  Last month, the House passed the Fiscal Year 2027 Agriculture, Rural 
Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies 
Appropriations Act, funding for the USDA and other ancillary purposes.
  The bill cuts, unfortunately, the United States Department of 
Agriculture's budget by more than $1 billion while farm bankruptcies 
are increasing and rising costs to farmers as it relates to energy 
costs, fertilizer costs, et cetera, are having a dramatic impact. 
Certainly, in California, bankruptcies are up from last year by 44 
percent. That is devastating.
  In the San Joaquin Valley, growers are already fighting rising costs, 
volatile markets, and pest and disease threats. That is a normal part 
of farming, but this doesn't meet the moment. It makes it harder. It 
makes it harder because the USDA is part of a safety net for American 
agriculture. For hungry families, it is even crueler. It takes food off 
the table.
  I ask what it says about us, in this 250th anniversary that is 
intended to commemorate the greatness of our country, that we are 
stripping food from the most vulnerable Americans and calling it a 
positive trend. Give me a break.
  Madam Speaker, 46 percent of Americans being cut from SNAP are 
children--children, not criminals, not fraudsters. They are children. 
Over 700,000 kids have already lost their food benefits, and that is 
only in the 12 States currently reporting the child-level data. The 
real number, I think, is far worse.
  We are talking about mothers stretching bags of groceries to the last 
of the week and oftentimes making difficult choices between food or 
medicine for their children.
  We are also talking about veterans who have served this country and 
now have difficulty putting food on the table.
  We are talking about people with disabilities who have nowhere else 
to turn.
  We are talking about our neighbors. They are Americans living during 
the celebration of this 250th year of this Republic.
  A drop in enrollment has nothing to do with fraud or a stronger 
economy. It has to do with people losing their benefits that they are 
entitled to. Yet, many of my Republican colleagues cut SNAP and 
nutrition assistance twice. They have done it twice, once in the big, 
not so beautiful bill, in my view, and they have done it a second time 
in this ag appropriations that was passed last month.
  Again, the Agriculture appropriations bill made this cut, as I said, 
5.6 percent, or another $6 billion below last year's enacted measure. 
On top of that, they are cutting fruit and vegetable benefits from the 
Women, Infants, and Children's program--fruits and vegetables, healthy 
aspects of our diet.
  It makes no sense why we are making it harder for families in 
underserved communities to put fresh, healthy food on the table. I 
voted ``no'' on that bill.
  My district in the San Joaquin Valley in California has some of the 
most vital, richest agricultural production anywhere in the country or 
the world, yet we have a significant amount of people who are food 
insecure. Almost 30 percent of households in my congressional district 
rely at some time or another on SNAP. It is one of the highest ratios 
in the State.
  Most of these households include a child, a senior, or a person on 
disability. These families are not living large, believe me. They are 
barely surviving.
  Madam Speaker, in this 250th year of America, I think we should be 
lifting people up and not taking food off their dinner tables because 
food in America is a national security issue, as I like to say. It is 
an international security issue when we look at food hunger around the 
globe and cuts that have

[[Page H4419]]

taken place in USAID that were devastating, to make but one of those 
examples.
  Our Founders did not build this Nation so that two and a half 
centuries later we would be debating whether or not hungry children 
deserve to eat.
  The farm bill on the Senate side gives us another chance, and I ask 
that we reconsider the SNAP payments on that farm bill in September.
  Fraud is a crime, but hunger is not. Let us honor the values of this 
anniversary.

                          ____________________