[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 13944-13945]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          A DREAM-KILLING BILL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Farr) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, here we go again.
  Last week, we averted an attack on the country of Syria. This week, 
we again attack the country of the United States of America. We attack 
the working poor.
  What is it about the GOP-led institution? They can find nothing wrong 
with Wall Street criminals who have driven the American families into 
ruin, but we can spend several days attacking the victims of the 
recession.
  I'm talking about people who need food stamps, which is the SNAP 
program. It's a debit card. They need help to buy food. Our farmers 
help them by growing the food, our grocery stores help them by selling 
the food, and our charity organizations help them when they fall 
through the cracks. And guess what? The helpers get paid. That's the 
money that supports the food stamps. Those are jobs. But that's about 
to go away. It's about to hurt those who need the help.
  The bill on the floor today is H.R. 3102. It's the Republican Take 
Away Nutrition Reform and Take Away Work Opportunity Act. I added the 
``takeaways'' because that's what it does. Sensible people ought to 
vote ``no'' on this bill.
  You will hear that there are a lot of cheats out there. But guess 
what? The program has enforcement officers. They're in place. And when 
cheats are caught, they're fined or they go to jail. This is in 
contrast to the misguided Wall Street investors and the banking 
foreclosure mess, where no one seems to get caught or go to jail. But 
we here in Congress can pass a bad bill that takes food away from 
working mothers.
  Who are these people on food stamps? Who receives this aid? You know 
them. They're parents, sisters, brothers, moms and dads, and, as you've 
heard from previous speakers, they're veterans and people on Active 
Duty service. They're people in need of extra money to buy food.
  Yesterday, I met one of those persons here in the United States 
Capitol. She's a working mom. She dropped out of high school at the age 
of 16 but eventually got a GED degree. With her GED degree, now that 
she had a baby, she was urged that she needed to go on. But she didn't 
have a job. She needed help. She got it through food stamps. She 
decided now that she could care for

[[Page 13945]]

her baby, she could go to community college to further her skill 
development and later go on to a California college. She's 21 years 
old. She's a senior in college this year and now the mother of a 5-
year-old son.
  I met her here in the United States Capitol because she works here. 
Her name is Lisa Russell. She won a Leon Panetta Hill internship. She 
is one of our best and brightest and needs food stamps to make it work. 
I met her because she thanked me for opposing this bill. As she told 
me, There are a million Lisas out there, millions of people who need 
assistance. Don't deny them a chance to get out of poverty and to have 
help when they need it.
  H.R. 3102 is a dream killer. It's un-American.
  A few minutes ago, we pledged to this flag behind me. Now it's time 
to live up to the responsibilities in that pledge of justice for all, 
not just for a few.
  H.R. 3102 is a bad bill. It needs defeating.

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