[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 10583-10584]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             END HUNGER NOW

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I rise once again to address the House on 
the need to end hunger now. This is the 14th time that I've done so 
this year.
  Next week, the Members of this House will return home to their 
districts for the 4th of July district work

[[Page 10584]]

period. There will be parades and fireworks and picnics for all of us, 
but for too many of our neighbors there will be no such festivities. 
They will be too busy working two or three jobs just to make ends meet.
  They will be worrying about their children, who, during these summer 
months, are too often forced to go without enough nutritious food to 
eat because school is out of session, because in our country, Mr. 
Speaker, in the richest, most powerful Nation in the history of the 
world, the reality is that 50 million of our fellow Americans struggle 
with hunger.
  I am also sure that, during the 4th of July activities, many Members 
will be getting quite an earful from the farmers in their districts. 
Those farmers are now facing confusion and uncertainty as they prepare 
for yet another season without a long-term reauthorization of the farm 
bill. They will wonder why this House of Representatives can't seem to 
get its act together.
  I hope that my colleagues will tell them the truth, which is that the 
reason the farm bill failed in the House last week is that it would 
have thrown 2 million people off the SNAP program. It would have caused 
over 200,000 children to lose access to the free school breakfast and 
lunch program. It would have made hunger worse in America. It would 
have forced struggling Americans to jump through all sorts of hoops, 
like drug testing, while not requiring the same of wealthy farmers who 
receive Federal subsidies. It would have not only allowed but actually 
encouraged States to find ways to kick people off the SNAP program. In 
short, it would have continued the Republican majority's assault on 
hardworking, struggling poor people; and for many of us on our side of 
the aisle, that price was simply too high.
  As columnist E.J. Dionne wrote after the defeat of the bill:

       This is, above all, a story about morality. There is 
     something profoundly wrong when a legislative majority is so 
     eager to risk leaving so many Americans hungry. That's what 
     the bill would have done and why defeating it was a moral 
     imperative.

  Mr. Speaker, I want a farm bill. Our farmers deserve a farm bill. I 
am honored to represent hundreds of small farmers, and I am honored to 
serve on the Agriculture Committee. I know that Chairman Lucas and 
Ranking Member Peterson worked incredibly hard to thread a very small 
needle. If the Republican leadership really wants a farm bill, it 
should do away with these draconian SNAP cuts and bring a bill to the 
floor that acknowledges the struggles faced by millions of our 
neighbors.

                              {time}  1030

  My fear, however, is they will do just the opposite, that they will 
go even further, make even deeper cuts to food and nutrition programs, 
make even more Americans hungry in a vain attempt to convince some of 
their more right-wing members to support this bill. Indeed, we see that 
dynamic at work with the agriculture appropriations bill before us this 
week, a bill that makes drastic cuts to the Women, Infants and Children 
program.
  I would like to once again urge the White House to take an active 
leadership role on this. Last week, the administration issued a veto 
threat against the farm bill because of the devastating SNAP cuts that 
it contained, and I welcomed that threat. It was a positive sign. It 
was a positive sign that the White House understands that throwing 2 
million people off of SNAP would be devastating not just to those 
individuals, but to our economy, as well.
  But the administration, quite frankly, needs to do more. They need to 
convene a White House conference on food and nutrition so that we can 
get everyone in a room, including our farmers, to address the issue of 
hunger in America. Let's solve this problem. This is a solvable 
problem, but it needs attention and we need to have a plan.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to 
reflect over the next week about where we should go from here. Do we 
want to live up to the bipartisan tradition of giants like Bob Dole and 
George McGovern, who came together and helped create this anti-hunger 
safety net that we have in this country? Their leadership almost ended 
hunger in this country in the 1970s. Unfortunately, we have strayed so 
far away from what they've done that we now find ourselves with 50 
million hungry people.
  Do we want to unite to provide a circle of protection around our most 
vulnerable neighbors? I hope so, Mr. Speaker. I hope that this House of 
Representatives understands that one of our obligations is to make sure 
that the needy and the poor and the most vulnerable are not forgotten, 
that we don't sit back and allow them to fall through the cracks.
  We can do this. We can end hunger now. All we need is the political 
will.

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