[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9816]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   THE FARM BILL--A PARTISAN PRODUCT

  (Mr. GALLEGO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GALLEGO. I rise reluctantly to express my disappointment in 
today's proceedings. I am one of those Democrats who voted for a 
bipartisan product coming out of committee; but unfortunately, today, 
the bill that we saw come out of committee became an extremely partisan 
product towards the end.
  One of the challenges for me was that I am a firm believer in the 
SNAP program. It's an anti-hunger safety net that serves vulnerable 
children and seniors across our country. The average benefit is $4.50 a 
day. That's a lifeline. That's not a luxury. In 2010, SNAP helped more 
than 3.6 million people in Texas afford food. It's critical to children 
and seniors. In the 23rd Congressional District, there are 36,000 
households receiving SNAP. The vast majority is of households with 
working class families and working class families with young kids.
  Today was a disappointment. I was perfectly prepared to work for a 
product that we could get to conference--I had my card to vote green--
but it seemed, in watching the debate here and the finger-pointing 
immediately--the blame of who did what to whom--was just so 
frustrating.
  The truth is that we've got to get somewhere in the middle. When you 
continually offer these amendments that move us further and further off 
the middle and that move us further and further and further to the 
right, it makes it increasingly difficult to support what should be a 
bipartisan product.

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