[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11056]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             DRACONIAN CUTS

  (Ms. LINDA T. SANCHEZ of California asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute.)
  Ms. LINDA T. SANCHEZ of California. Madam Speaker, the House farm 
bill calls for draconian cuts that hurt our most vulnerable Americans. 
I'll be blunt and just get straight to the point. The House-proposed 
cuts are completely unacceptable.
  The SNAP program puts healthy food on the table for 46 million 
Americans every month. In my home State of California, close to 6\1/2\ 
million people struggle to put food on the table. An even worse 
statistic--and one that really breaks my heart: almost 2\1/2\ million 
children each year in California have had to go to bed hungry, and it's 
simply because their families couldn't afford food.
  These proposed cuts to SNAP would quite literally take food out of 
the mouths of children. In my district, SNAP helps provide food for 
seniors, kids, veterans, and working families. About 20 percent of my 
constituents report that at some point last year, they couldn't buy 
food for themselves or their family. I don't understand why in good 
conscience Congress would ask millions of struggling Americans to go 
hungry in order to subsidize big agribusiness.
  As a country, we cannot afford to turn our backs on those who need us 
most now.

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