[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 7049]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              IN OPPOSITION TO 2013 FARM BILL CUTS TO SNAP

  (Ms. CLARKE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. CLARKE. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to voice my opposition to the 
proposed $20 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance 
Program, also known as the SNAP program. This program currently 
provides food assistance to 47 million Americans who otherwise would 
not have access to one of the most basic human necessities--food.
  Two million low-income Americans--most of whom are working families 
with children, senior citizens, and people with disabilities--will lose 
their food assistance as a result of these cuts. Of that number, 
200,000 children would also lose access to their free school meals 
because their eligibility for these meals is tied to their receipt of 
SNAP.
  Let me ask my Republican colleagues: How often do your children have 
to learn on empty stomachs or come home and study on empty stomachs? I 
dare say not often, if ever. But that is what the Republicans are 
proposing that we do to close to a quarter of a million children. They 
are asking them not only to learn on empty stomachs, but also to come 
home and study on empty stomachs. This cannot stand.

                          ____________________