Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

Floor Speech

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to oppose a Republican bill that was introduced yesterday that would let States use drug testing to determine low-income Americans' eligibility to receive food assistance through SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

This is nothing more than an attempt to demonize poor people and has no basis in reality.

Similar laws in Florida and Georgia were struck down as unconstitutional and only waste thousands of taxpayer dollars to identify very few drug users. In fact, those receiving public assistance actually test positive at a lower rate than the general population.

Why aren't my Republican colleagues calling for drug testing for wealthy CEOs and oil company executives who receive taxpayer subsidies? Why is it that they always pick on poor people? It is a lousy thing to do.

SNAP is intended to help people put food on the table when they are struggling to find work, when their current job is not paying enough, or simply when they have fallen on hard times.

We should be talking about improving the SNAP benefit so that families can afford more nutritious food, not creating more insulting hoops for vulnerable families to have to jump through.

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