[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 10818]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     MILITARY HUNGER PREVENTION ACT

  (Mr. McGOVERN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, as the House considers the fiscal year 
2018 National Defense Authorization Act this week, I would like to draw 
attention to one provision that was left out of the bill: the Military 
Hunger Prevention Act.
  It is shameful that military families like lower ranking enlisted 
servicemembers with larger households are among the 42 million 
Americans suffering from food insecurity.
  While up to 22,000 military households rely on SNAP, many military 
families are unable to receive modest benefits due to an unintended 
provision that counts certain housing allowances as income when 
determining eligibility for SNAP.
  To address this issue, I have joined with my friend, Representative 
Susan Davis, on the bipartisan Military Hunger Prevention Act. I am 
disappointed that this commonsense technical fix was left out of this 
year's NDAA, and I plan to continue working with my colleagues and our 
advocacy partners like MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger to move this 
legislation forward.
  We owe it to the families who have sacrificed so much for our country 
to do all that we can to end hunger now.

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