Opposing the Farm Bill

Floor Speech

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Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Speaker, I come before the House today to talk about the Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018. We call it the farm bill.

It is supposed to be about supporting farmers, strengthening communities, making sure that we have nutritious food, looking out for our environment, and generally feeding America and even sometimes the world.

Instead, this bill would allow companies to spray pesticides into our waterways, which are endangered all over this country. It will allow all sorts of environmental challenges and will diminish the quality of life for people. They won't even allow a provision to have a Clean Water Act permit to spray pesticides.

The bill is also an attack on local control. I thought local control was a hallmark of what it meant to be conservative. Apparently not, because this bill preempts local governments from taking steps to protect their communities from pesticides. I think a local community is in a better position to understand the health needs of its people than the Federal Government is.

The bill would also make deep cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, a program that used to be called food stamps. There are no actual stamps anymore; this benefit is provided on a card that people use. The 5-year authorization of the farm bill would cut $23 billion from SNAP--$23 billion.

The proposal also adds work requirements. Now, some people think: Oh, yeah, what is wrong with making people work for a living? I work for a living.

Well, the truth is, people who use the food stamp program often work for a living too. They just happen to have a tough patch in their lives where they need their neighbors--that is us--to step up and help make sure that they can have food on the table.

The idea that people who have economic hardship don't want to work is simply wrong. This body gives money out to rich people all the time and doesn't ask for any work requirements. We don't ask for many requirements at all, but we do it. It is all part of this shaming and blaming the poor.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that this new work requirement, plus other restrictions proposed by the farm bill, as proposed, would end up denying or reducing nutritional aid to about 2 million people, mostly families with children.

By the way, 70 percent of poor kids in America eligible for food stamps live in a household with somebody who works, but the Federal minimum wage is $7.25. On $7.25, that works out to about $15,000 a year. You could work full-time and be eligible for food stamps.

People who don't work because of whatever difficult patch they hit in their life should not be shamed into not accepting food assistance. If they are not healthy and they are not well-fed, how are they going to get back in the workforce?

Under this proposal, most adults between 18 and 59 will be required to work part-time or enroll in 20 hours a week of workforce training to receive assistance. It would impose stricter eligibility guidelines for low-income families who qualify for SNAP through other welfare programs.

Many SNAP recipients face legitimate barriers to enrolling in these programs, such as unreliable transportation. One of my colleagues already talked about the difficulty with transportation in getting to a better paying job in this economy. Low housing security. A lot of people are homeless. It is very difficult to stay employed if you are homeless. And shifting childcare and medical schedules.

SNAP helps 42 million people in nearly 21 million households. In 2016, SNAP lifted 3.6 million people out of poverty. They were in poverty; now they weren't because of SNAP. It is a good program.

In my own State of Minnesota, more than 69 percent of SNAP participants are families with children. Almost 30 percent are families with members who are elderly or people with disabilities. More than 54 percent are working families.

People who use food stamp benefits work hard every day. They work harder than many of us who earn a lot more than them.

SNAP kept 111,000 people out of poverty in Minnesota, including almost 60,000 children, per year from 2009 to 2012.

Let me wrap up by saying that the farm bill, as currently proposed, I cannot vote for. I will have to urge a ``no'' vote, and I hope that we learn something important about people who struggle hard in this economy.

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