[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 11674-11676]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1110
        LET OUR EYES REST UPON WHAT POVERTY IN AMERICA TRULY IS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. I would like to particularly thank the Out 
of Poverty Caucus: Congresswoman Lee, Congressmen Towns, Conyers, 
Honda, and a number of other Members who

[[Page 11675]]

have joined that caucus and all of us who are here on the floor who are 
members of that caucus and who believe that this could not be a more 
important time.
  A few days ago, I got on the floor to rename the Cut, Cap, and 
Balance legislation that was passed that would cut $6 trillion out of 
the hearts and needs of the American people. I called it the ``Tap 
Dance, Losers' Club, and Bust the Benefits'' bill because this is not a 
question of Members who are standing here today, wanting to recklessly 
spend your money. In fact, we are excited about opportunities that help 
boost the middle class, but we want to remind our colleagues that there 
are Americans who are impoverished.
  Do you know that there are Americans who are on the front lines--
young soldiers of the ages of 18, 19, 20, and 21 who have come out of 
places like the Delta in Mississippi or the Fifth Ward in Texas or the 
Appalachian Mountains or from the urban centers around the Nation--who 
are suffering from the highest degree of poverty, not poverty that they 
have generated on themselves?
  Yes, there are issues sometimes with legacy poverty: families that 
have never broken the cycle, who are living in public housing or, even 
worse, who are living in housing that is not fit to be lived in. Travel 
in some of the shoes that many of us travel in, and go to places in 
America where there is no running water.
  So we come today to acknowledge the fact that there is poverty in 
America.
  In my own State, the people who are living in poverty rose to 16.3 
percent in 2007 and to 17.2 percent in 2009--and we happen to be the 
second largest State in the Nation. Those are large numbers of 
individuals. We have the highest number of soldiers in the State of 
Texas who have come back from Iraq and Afghanistan, some of whom have 
had to access food stamps. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that 
there are currently 5.6 million Texans living in poverty. 2.2 million 
of them are children.
  So I stand here today.
  Let our eyes rest upon what poverty truly is.
  This little one is a symbol of what poverty really is. It is the 
innocent and those who cannot speak for themselves.
  Over 50 percent of the children who are in foster care in Harris 
County--that is in Texas--happen to be minority children, African 
American children. I remember my late colleague Mickey Leland was so 
overwhelmed by the depth of children who were in crisis and in need 
that he organized something called the ``crisis cradles'' so that, when 
babies had to be taken out of a distressed home in the middle of the 
night, they could come to a comforting place. Those babies were in 
poverty, were in crisis, and they became part of the foster care 
system. That is a system that needs money, not because they're 
deadbeats, but because they are innocent children who have come into 
home situations where women are impoverished, where there may be abuse.
  Poverty comes in all forms. 3.9 million residents of Texas rely on 
the Supplemental Nutrition Access Program. This is all discretionary 
funding which the $6 trillion would devastate--again, tap dancing 
around lifting the debt ceiling. President Reagan said to Majority 
Leader Baker that it would be an incalculable devastating result if, at 
the time that he was President, the debt ceiling was not raised. By the 
way, it was raised 17 times.
  Does anyone understand that, constitutionally, the debt ceiling may 
be unconstitutional? The 14th Amendment, section 4--read your 
Constitution--says that all debt of the United States, public debt, 
should be recognized.
  So just to conclude, Mr. Speaker, we come today to let America know: 
Should we let this little baby be part of the losers' club or should we 
let our soldiers and their families and grandmothers and grandfathers 
be part of the losers' club?
  We are standing here today for the impoverished, and we are committed 
to fighting for them.
  I would like to thank my friend from California for managing this 
time and drawing attention to the millions of Americans living in 
poverty.
  In the coming weeks and months, this Congress will continue to debate 
the debt ceiling and budget. However, as we discuss cuts, it is 
imperative that we not lose sight of how funding reductions affect the 
American people.
  CFPB regulations enacted by the bureau are designed to protect the 
average consumer from fraud and abuse, and prevent financial 
institutions from employing unfair practices.
  In 2009, there were 43.6 million Americans throughout the nation 
living in poverty. The 2010 Federal poverty threshold, determined by 
the U.S. Census, is that a family of four is considered impoverished if 
they are living on less than $22,314 per year.
  Children represent a disproportionate amount of the United States' 
poor population. In 2008, there were 15.45 million impoverished 
children in the Nation, 20.7 percent of America's youth.
  In my home state of Texas, where I represent the 18th Congressional 
District, the percentage of people living in poverty rose from 16.3 
percent in 2007 to 17.2 percent in 2009. The Kaiser Family Foundation 
estimates that there are currently 5.6 million Texans living in 
poverty, 2.2 million of them children, and that 17.4 percent of 
households in the state struggle with food insecurity.
  We must not, we cannot, at a time when the Census Bureau places the 
number of Americans living in poverty at the highest rate in over 50 
years, cut vital social services, not when in the wake of the 2008 
financial crisis and persistent unemployment so many rely on Federal 
benefits to survive.
  In April 2011, 3.9 million residents of Texas relied on the 
Supplemental Nutrition Access Program (SNAP) and other food stamp 
programs to feed their families.
  The Republican budget reforms SNAP benefits into block grants, and 
caps the amount of Federal funding available to the program, with no 
guarantee that the allocated funding will be sufficient to meet the 
demand of low income families struggling with hunger.
  The Republican budget also cuts $504 million from the Women, Infant 
and Children (WIC) Program, which provides nutritious food to 
struggling mothers and children. The USDA reports that more than 
990,000 Texas families rely on WIC for essential nutrition to keep 
mothers and their children healthy.
  The Congressional Budget Office estimates changes to Medicare under 
the Republican budget plan will triple the cost for new beneficiaries 
by 2030 and increase costs for current recipients, including the 2.9 
million people in Texas who received Medicare in 2010.
  The Republican proposal will enact damaging changes to Medicaid, 
threatening healthcare resources for the 60 million people, half of 
them children, that rely on this program to stay healthy. A block grant 
for funding or a cap on federal Medicaid spending would increase the 
cost for states and the low income families who benefit from the 
program.
  Harris County has one of the highest Medicaid enrollment records in 
Texas. Limits and cuts to Medicaid funds would significantly hurt the 
citizens of Texas's 18th District. Harris County averages between 
500,000 and 600,000 Medicaid recipients monthly, thousands of people 
who may not have access to healthcare under this budget.
  Yes, we must take steps to balance the budget and reduce the national 
debt, but not at the expense of vital social programs. It is 
unconscionable that in our Nation of vast resources, my Republican 
colleagues would pass a budget that cuts funding for essential social 
programs benefitting children and the elderly in order to finance $800 
billion in new tax cuts for the wealthiest among us.
  Perhaps my friends on the other side of the aisle are content to 
conclude that life simply is not fair, equality is not accessible to 
everyone, and the less advantaged among us are condemned to remain as 
they are, but I do not accept that. That kind of complacency is not 
fitting for America.
  I firmly believe that all Americans can come together to protect the 
most vulnerable citizens in the Nation, to provide relief for the poor 
and the hungry, because 43 million of our fellow countrymen living in 
poverty, 15 million of them children, is simply unacceptable. Finally, 
where are the jobs--cutting $6 trillion will not create jobs. I am here 
to create jobs for the poor and our American families.
  I urge every Member in this Chamber to look at what unites us rather 
than what divides us. We are linked by our compassion, and bound by the 
fundamental edict of the American dream that says we will strive to 
provide our children with a better life than we had. We can, and we 
must reach a compromise that will not cut valuable services from those 
who need government the most.

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  I thank my friend, the gentlelady from California.

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