[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 296]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           THE WAR ON POVERTY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Ohio (Ms. Fudge) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. FUDGE. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to commemorate the 50th 
anniversary of President Lyndon B. Johnson's war on poverty.
  In 1964, President Johnson stood in this Chamber and addressed a 
Congress that represented a nation where more than 25 percent of 
Americans lived in poverty. In his address, President Johnson launched 
an agenda that led to the creation of Medicare, Medicaid, Job Corps, 
Head Start, and nutrition assistance for those who struggle to put food 
on their table.
  His war, and its resulting programs, helped move millions out of 
poverty. From 1967 to 2012, the poverty rate fell from 26 percent to 16 
percent, largely because of the strong safety net programs initiated by 
President Johnson's agenda.
  Yet here we are today, 50 years later, and too many Americans are 
still living on the outskirts of hope because the war on poverty has 
now become a war on the poor. In the last year alone, Congress has 
agreed to indiscriminate, across-the-board cuts known as sequestration 
in an effort to balance the budget, and the House passed a farm bill 
that cut SNAP by $40 billion. Sequestration hurts the very people who 
need help the most by greatly reducing critical funding to programs 
like WIC and Head Start.
  Congress drastically cut one of the most powerful antipoverty 
programs, SNAP, better known as food stamps. That is absurd when, 
according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, SNAP kept 4.9 
million Americans out of poverty in 2012 alone, including 2.2 million 
children.
  Congress has also chosen not to extend unemployment insurance. Even 
though our country continues to lift itself out of the recession, many 
Americans still need our support. Turning our back on the 1.4 million 
Americans who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own is 
unconscionable.
  In an interview yesterday, I was asked to respond to a quote 
regarding unemployment insurance by a Republican, and this is what he 
said. He said:

       We have to introduce the blessing of work to people who 
     have never seen it.

  And let me just say, to be clear, he could not possibly have been 
talking about unemployment insurance, because you have to have worked 
to even receive it. So he obviously doesn't know what unemployment 
insurance is.
  And to my colleague, I say that the American people know that they 
should be blessed with work, but they need meaningful work with a 
living wage.
  I will continue to be a voice for the poor and will always fight on 
behalf of the 46 million Americans trying to survive in households with 
inadequate incomes. Americans need us to open the gates of opportunity 
so they can eat properly, get a quality education, and find good-paying 
jobs.
  So on this 50th anniversary, I am making it clear that the war on 
poverty might be over, but the fight for the poor is not. We must 
reinforce the plans of President Johnson that would ensure all 
Americans can support themselves and their families and have better 
chances to contribute to our economy and our society. This is the way 
we build upon the progress we have made over the past five decades, not 
by taking action to reverse it.
  To paraphrase Dr. King, he says, we have an obligation to those who 
have been left out of the sunlight of opportunity.

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