[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 13810-13811]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



           GETTING ARMED FORCES PERSONNEL OFF OF FOOD STAMPS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Jones) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JONES of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I come back to the floor 
after several weeks of not being on the floor to talk about our men and 
women in uniform that are on food stamps.
  This photograph is of a Marine that is getting ready to deploy for 
the Balkans. In his arms he has his daughter, Bridgett, and on his feet 
is a little 2-year-old girl named Megan.
  Mr. Speaker, we have done a great deal to help our men and women in 
uniform in the 6 years I have been here in office as we have tried to 
increase their pay, to improve their quality of life, and we have made 
some great strides. But, Mr. Speaker, the problem is, we still have men 
and women in uniform that are on food stamps.
  Mr. Speaker, I feel, as do most Members of this House, that anybody 
that is willing to die for this country when called upon to protect our 
freedoms, they should not be under any circumstances on food stamps.
  I felt somewhat compelled after July 4th, being home, and, like most 
Members here, I went to several parades, and at a couple of these 
parades the Marine Band was there and the Honor Guard, and I saw those 
Marines in their dress blues, and it just reminded me, not just of 
Marines, but any man or woman in uniform, whether it be the Army, the 
Navy, the Marine Corps, the Air Force or the Coast Guard, that we would 
have those in uniform that are on food stamps.
  Here we are this week, again we will be debating another foreign 
operations bill, yet we find millions of dollars to send overseas. I 
know there is a need to have foreign aid, I am not saying that we 
should not be, but I think we do have an obligation to protect those in 
uniform first, those that are on food stamps. Quite frankly, I am 
quoting Daniel Webster who said, ``God grants liberty to those who love 
it and are willing and prepared to defend it.''
  Mr. Speaker, we are fortunate to have the men and women in uniform 
that we have in the Armed Services of America, but, yet, again, I came 
to the floor because we have a bill that I introduced a year ago, H.R. 
1055, that would help our men and women in uniform. I have over 100 
signatures, Mr. Speaker, and that is both Republican and Democrat, and 
I continue to encourage my leadership, as I hope that Democrats who 
have signed this bill are encouraging their leadership, to say that we 
will not leave this year in October without helping those on food 
stamps, to do the very best to make sure that we have no one in uniform 
on food stamps. That might be somewhat idealistic, but I think it is 
worthy of our efforts to do that, to make sure that they are not on 
food stamps.
  I want to share with you, because I have military bases, Camp Lejeune 
in Jacksonville, Cherry Point Marine Air Station in Havelock, Seymour 
Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, and also a Coast Guard base in 
Elizabeth City.
  Recently the Jacksonville paper, which is the home of Camp Lejeune, 
they did a feature on men and women in uniform that are at the bottom 
of the ladder, so-to-speak, as it speaks to their income, and this 
article said that there are 145 Marine families in Camp Lejeune, which 
again is in Jacksonville, that receive a total of $25,000 a month in 
food stamps.
  I ask this, Mr. Speaker, that if we have 145 that are identified that 
go to the social services for food stamps, how many do we have in that 
area that are not going because of pride or because of some other 
reason?
  So, again, I am encouraging our leadership this year, Mr. Speaker, 
before

[[Page 13811]]

we leave in October, to please, let us work together in a bipartisan 
way to make sure that when we leave, that no one is dependent on food 
stamps in the military.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to close with a poem that I think is very 
appropriate for all of us in the Congress, as well as anyone in this 
country that maybe has not served in the military, to remember that the 
freedoms that we enjoy are guaranteed by those in uniform.
  The poem was written by Father Dennis O'Brien, United States Marine 
Corps.

     ``Who has given us freedom of the press?
     It is the soldier, not the poet.
     Who has given us freedom of speech?
     It is the soldier, not the campus organizer.
     Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate?
     It is the soldier,
     Who salutes the flag,
     Who serves beneath the flag,
     Whose coffin is draped by the flag,
     Who allows the protester to burn the flag.''

  Mr. Speaker, I close with that, because, again, I want to remind the 
Members of the United States House of Representatives that we do have 
over 6,000 men and women in uniform which are on food stamps, and I 
would hope we would do everything possible to make sure when we leave 
again in October that we have very few in the military on food stamps.

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