[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6401-6403]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             END HUNGER NOW

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2013, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Massachusetts 
(Mr. McGovern) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, next Wednesday the House Agriculture 
Committee is expected to mark up the farm bill. The farm bill is an 
important bill for many reasons, but chief among them is the 
reauthorization of our Nation's antihunger safety net programs. The 
largest and arguably most important is the Supplemental Nutrition 
Assistance Program, or SNAP.
  As I continue to remind my colleagues through my series of End Hunger 
Now speeches, it is important to acknowledge that hunger is a real 
problem in America. Even as we slowly come out of this recession and as 
Americans struggle to get back on their feet, there are still nearly 50 
million hungry people living in this country. Nearly 17 million are 
kids. The hungry, labeled by some as food insecure because they don't 
know where their next meal is coming from, aren't like those who starve 
in Third World countries. They don't have sunken eyes and swollen 
bellies, and that's primarily because of SNAP and other antihunger 
safety net programs.
  SNAP has prevented millions of people from going without food when 
they desperately need it. The population served by SNAP is not the 
rich. They aren't living in mansions or driving expensive cars or 
eating in five-star restaurants. No, Mr. Speaker, they are primarily 
low-income families who are trying to make ends meet. They are trying 
to provide healthy food for their families while they try to keep a 
roof over their head and pay the bills to keep utilities running. And 
that's why the farm bill is so important.
  Every 5 years, we have an opportunity to look at SNAP and other 
programs that make up the farm bill. We have an opportunity to look at 
what is and what isn't working. We have an opportunity to make the 
program run better, at least that's what we should be doing. 
Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, as we move to the markup of this farm bill, 
we haven't had a single hearing, not a single hearing this year, on the 
SNAP program.
  But next week, the House Agriculture Committee will mark up a farm 
bill that we're told, if reports are to be trusted, that will cut $20 
billion from SNAP. That's $20 billion that could go to feed hungry 
Americans. That's a $20 billion cut that will literally take food out 
of the mouths of hungry Americans. In short, it's a bill that will make 
hunger in America worse, not better.
  SNAP is among the most effective and efficient, if not the most 
effective and efficient, federally run program. Error rates are at an 
all-time low. In

[[Page 6402]]

fact, when it comes to error rates, more SNAP benefits are underpaid 
rather than overpaid. That means that a SNAP error will likely result 
in a beneficiary receiving a smaller benefit than they are eligible for 
rather than a higher benefit. Waste and abuse is almost negligible, and 
USDA continues to crack down on fraud. People who defraud SNAP, those 
who break the law, are being arrested and they're going to jail.
  The program is working, Mr. Speaker, and I defy anyone to show me any 
other Federal program that is as effective and as efficient as SNAP. 
Yet some Republicans are hell-bent on cutting the program. I should 
say, obliterating the program, and I simply do not understand why. What 
do they have against poor people? Why do they think that it's okay to 
hold back a helping hand. SNAP isn't a get-rich scheme. People use SNAP 
to put food on their table during difficult times. The way to reduce 
the number of people on SNAP is by creating jobs, by helping to get 
this economy going again. The more people go back to work, the less 
people need to rely on SNAP.
  But what some in this House are proposing is that we arbitrarily and 
indiscriminately cut the help that people need. A $20 billion cut will 
do real damage. It will be harder for some to get SNAP. For others, 
they will see their SNAP benefit cut, meaning they'll have to buy the 
same amount of food with less money. And we'll see, at a minimum, 
several hundred thousand poor kids lose their free school meals. Yes, 
Mr. Speaker, this bill will take food away from poor kids.
  For the life of me, I cannot understand why anyone--I don't care what 
your political party is--would want to do this. Cutting SNAP is a bad 
policy. Cutting SNAP in the name of fiscal responsibility is not just a 
misnomer, it is a falsehood that must be debunked.
  There are many other programs in the farm bill that have higher rates 
of fraud, waste, and abuse--programs like direct payments and crop 
insurance, just to name two. These programs must be reined in rather 
than going after programs that help poor people struggle to feed their 
families during difficult times.
  Mr. Speaker, I continue to believe that we can end hunger now if we 
muster the political will to do so.

                              {time}  1740

  But cutting SNAP, passing a farm bill that cuts $20 billion from this 
program will not end hunger now. It will make hunger worse. It is the 
wrong thing to do at the wrong time in our history.
  I'd like to believe that my Republican colleagues on the Agriculture 
Committee would realize this before they embrace a bill that would have 
such a draconian cut, that would have a $20 billion cut in SNAP.
  And, Mr. Speaker, I'm urging my Democratic colleagues on the 
Agriculture Committee to join me in rejecting these cuts. And if these 
cuts prevail, then we should vote against this farm bill. I think it is 
simply wrong to send a bill to the House floor, or if it passes the 
House floor, over to the United States Senate that decimates this 
important program. It is just wrong.
  And for some reason, it has become fashionable in this House to not 
worry about the poor and to not worry about the vulnerable. Every time 
we need to find a cut, you go after programs that benefit the most 
vulnerable. It is wrong. It is outrageous. It goes against everything 
we're supposed to be doing in this Congress.
  Mr. Speaker, rejecting these cuts is the right thing to do, 
especially if we want to end hunger now.
  Mr. Speaker, I would remind my colleagues that hunger is a political 
condition. Hunger is a political condition. We have the resources, we 
have the means, we have the infrastructure to end it; but we don't have 
the political will.
  We have the political will when it comes to going to war. We have the 
political will when it comes to giving tax breaks to wealthy people. We 
have the political will when it comes to protecting special interest 
subsidies to Big Oil.
  But when it comes to ending hunger, the political will is not here. 
It is not here. And what a shame, Mr. Speaker.
  I would also remind my colleagues that there was a cost to hunger. 
When people say to me, oh, we can't afford to help these people; we 
can't afford to expand these programs because this is a tough budgetary 
time that we find ourselves in, I remind my colleagues that there is a 
cost here.
  There's a cost in avoidable health care cost, for example. People who 
do not eat on a regular basis, children who do not eat on a regular 
basis, who are denied food, who are hungry, you know, their immune 
systems are compromised. They get common colds, and it ends up turning 
into something worse, and they end up going into emergency rooms and 
staying for several days. There's a cost to this.
  Senior citizens who can't afford their food and their medicine, they 
take their medicine on an empty stomach, they end up getting sick. They 
go into the hospital, they stay for several days, sometimes weeks. 
There is a cost to that.
  There's a cost to hunger in terms of lost productivity in the 
workplace. Workers aren't as productive.
  And, oh, let me just remind my colleagues, Mr. Speaker, when people 
think that SNAP is only a program for those who are unemployed, 
millions and millions and millions of people on this program work for a 
living. They work, but they don't earn enough to not qualify for this 
benefit.
  If you want to do something to help more people get off SNAP, 
increase the minimum wage, invest in this economy, get more people back 
to work. But there are millions of working people who rely on this 
program to feed their families. So there's a cost, Mr. Speaker.
  There's also a cost in terms of kids going to school hungry who can't 
learn. I mean, if you're hungry, you can't focus.
  If I had my way, Mr. Speaker, I would require universal school 
breakfast for everyone who goes to school in this country at the bell, 
because the bottom line is that meal, that nutrition is every bit as 
important to a young child, in terms of learning, as that textbook is 
because that textbook doesn't do a kid any good if he or she is hungry, 
if all they're worried about is where they're going to get their next 
meal. And there are too many kids, as I said, 17 million children in 
this country that are hungry.
  Mr. Speaker, we are supposed to be a political body here that is 
dedicated to solving problems. That's what our job is supposed to be. 
We're supposed to try to help people and solve problems, not ignore 
them or make them worse.
  There are millions of vulnerable people in this country who need our 
attention and who need our help. They don't want a handout; they want a 
hand up. They want to enter the job market; they want to enter into a 
secure economy. They're looking for some help to get them to the point 
they could survive long enough to be able to see this economy get back 
on its feet.
  Hunger in America is a real problem. This is an issue. No one talks 
about it here, but it is an issue. You don't see the leadership of this 
House, the Republican leadership of this House, paying any attention to 
this. They never even mention the word hunger. They never mention the 
word poverty when they speak.
  But this is a real problem. This is a real problem, and I would urge 
my colleagues who are about to embrace a $20 billion cut in SNAP to get 
out of Washington or, better yet, just leave the Capitol Grounds and go 
out and meet some people who are struggling on this benefit. Meet some 
people who don't have enough to eat, who end up going to food banks 
even when they get the SNAP benefits because it's not enough. This is 
not a get-rich scheme.
  And here's the other thing that my colleagues need to understand. 
Even if we did nothing in the farm bill, even if we protected 
everything, as it is, I mean, and didn't make any cuts in the farm bill 
next week, guess what? The average benefit, the average food

[[Page 6403]]

stamp benefit, the average SNAP benefit, is going to go down anyway 
because we have dipped into SNAP to pay for other programs. It has been 
our ATM machine to pay for a lot of other programs, and so the benefit 
already is going to go down for people. People are already going to 
feel it even if we were to do nothing.
  But to pile on $20 billion worth of cuts--and my friends will say, 
oh, well, you know, it's this categorical eligibility, or it's this, 
you know, we don't like the way this State does it or that State does 
it----
  Here's a point I want to make. If people were truly interested in 
making this program run better, then we would be doing hearing after 
hearing after hearing, not only here in Washington, but out in the 
field, listening to people who are beneficiaries, listening to the food 
banks, listening to the anti-hunger advocacy groups, listening to the 
mayors, listening to the Governors, listening to people; and we would 
figure out how to do this in a way that made sense.
  And by the way, I think any savings we find in SNAP we ought to put 
back into programs to combat hunger and to promote nutrition, you know, 
not take this money and help pay for a subsidy to some big agri-
business or continue to fund some cockamamie crop insurance scheme. We 
ought to put this, we ought to put any savings we find and any reforms 
back into these programs.
  Let's do this right. But my friends who want to cut this program 
don't want to do it right. They're not interested in helping this work 
better. All they're interested in is taking this money so they don't 
have to take it away from the special interests that fund political 
campaigns around here. And I find that outrageous.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues, both Republicans and 
Democrats, don't turn your backs on the poor. Don't turn your backs on 
the hungry in this country.
  As Members of the United States Congress, we should be ashamed, we 
should be ashamed that there are 50 million people in the United States 
of America that are hungry, that 17 million of them are children. It is 
outrageous.
  We're the richest, most powerful country in the world. There 
shouldn't be any hunger here. There shouldn't be anybody who has to 
worry about whether or not they're going to be able to put good, 
nutritious food on the table.
  So I urge my colleagues, Democrats, Republicans, please do not fall 
for this notion that cutting $20 billion won't make any difference to 
anybody, that we're just kind of tightening the program up. Don't fall 
for that line, because it's just not true. It's just not true.
  $20 billion in cuts from this program will mean that people today, 
who today are getting food tomorrow will not. And, again, if people 
qualify for this program, their kids automatically qualify for the free 
breakfast or lunch program at school. You cut these families off this 
program, those kids will no longer be eligible for that.
  How that serves our natural interest, how that helps anything in this 
country, how that even deals with our deficit, our debt problem is 
beyond me because we're creating a whole slew of new problems.

                              {time}  1750

  We are so much better than that. We are so much better than that.
  Let me just close with this, Mr. Speaker. Some people have said to 
me, well, hunger has been around for a long time. There's nothing we 
can do about it. Those people are wrong, Mr. Speaker. They're wrong. In 
1968, there was a documentary on television on ABC that documented for 
the entire Nation to see the hunger problem in America. And in the 
aftermath of that documentary, in a bipartisan way, people like Senator 
George McGovern of South Dakota, Senator Robert Dole of Kansas, Senator 
Jake Javits of New York and Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, in a 
bipartisan way came together and helped put together an effort to end 
hunger.
  In the 1970s, in the mid- to late 1970s, we almost succeeded in 
ending hunger in this country. We almost succeeded. And then came along 
a Congress that undid everything, and today we have seen the results of 
the negligence of Congress and of various White Houses over the years, 
and that is 50 million Americans--50 million Americans--who are hungry.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe that we can do better than that, and I believe 
that we are a much better country than that. I plead with my colleagues 
here, please don't do this. Please don't do this. The people we're 
talking about who benefit from this program don't have any big 
political PACs, and they don't have a lot of high-priced lobbyists here 
in Washington. I'm not even sure how many of them are going to vote in 
the next election. But they're our neighbors. They're our friends. 
They're part of our community. We're supposed to represent them. We're 
supposed to help people, not hurt people.
  If this farm bill goes forward with a $20 billion cut in SNAP, we 
will be hurting people in this country. We will be hurting millions and 
millions of people in this country.
  I hope we don't go down that path. I urge my colleagues, in a 
bipartisan way, to join with me. End hunger now. Reject these attempts 
at cutting SNAP by $20 billion, support a farm bill that supports not 
only our farmers, but supports good nutrition and supports an effort 
that will end hunger now.
  I thank my colleagues for listening to me, and I yield back the 
balance of my time.

                          ____________________