[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 17587]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         THANKSGIVING AND SNAP

  (Ms. DeLAURO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, next week we celebrate Thanksgiving, a 
holiday in which we express our gratitude for all that life in this 
land has given us. We celebrate our good fortune with family, friends, 
and foods.
  One of the most iconic portrayals of this day is Norman Rockwell's 
1941 painting, ``Freedom from Want,'' which shows a large family seated 
around a dinner table waiting to carve up a turkey. This painting was 
created to depict what Franklin Roosevelt called one of the ``four 
essential human freedoms,'' the freedoms that millions of Americans 
would fight and die to protect in World War II.
  Roosevelt reminded us as Americans that ``we cannot be content . . . 
if some fraction of our people, whether it be one-third or one-fifth or 
one-tenth, is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.'' 
Instead, ``after this war is won, we must be prepared to move forward . 
. . to new goals of human happiness and well-being.''
  Mr. Speaker, we are moving in the wrong direction. Right now in 
America, 49 million Americans, one out of every seven households in our 
country, are struggling with hunger, including 16 million kids. At this 
time of great need, this body proposes to cut $40 billion from food 
stamps, forcing 4 million low-income Americans to go hungry. It is 
immoral.

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