End Hunger Now

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, week after week, I've stood on this floor and talked about hunger in America. Week after week, I've talked about the devastating impacts of hunger in our country--how it affects kids and seniors and how our country is worse off because of hunger. I've talked about ways we can end hunger, and have expressed my commitment to the effort to end hunger now.

The problem, Mr. Speaker, is that the Republican leadership not only willfully ignores the plight of the hungry in America, but they are actually moving legislation that will make hunger in America worse.

Just a few weeks ago, USDA released the newest data on hunger in America. Hunger rates have essentially stayed flat over the past few years. That means that, statistically, hunger hasn't gotten worse since the end of the Great Recession, but it hasn't gotten any better either.

The United States has a strong anti-hunger safety net. Even though we have 49 million people who don't know where their next meals will come from, we know that nearly 48 million of them are enrolled in SNAP, formerly known as ``food stamps.'' SNAP is a lifeline. It provides low-income families with access to food, access they wouldn't otherwise have if they were not enrolled in SNAP. Now let me address a common piece of misinformation, a fabrication, that opponents of SNAP continue to use again and again.

SNAP is among the most effective and efficient, if not the most effective and efficient, Federal program in America. SNAP error rates--overpayments, underpayments and fraud rates--are not only at all-time lows for the program, but they are among the lowest rates of any Federal program. This notion that fraud, waste and abuse are rampant in SNAP is a fallacy. It's a make-believe talking point designed to take away food from hungry people. Yet the Republicans are bringing a bill to the floor tomorrow that, if passed, will undoubtedly make hunger worse in this country. Their bill will make hunger worse for working mothers and fathers, for kids, for senior citizens, and even for our veterans.

CBO reports that the bill would cut 3.8 million low-income people from SNAP in 2014--and just so there is no misunderstanding, ``low-income'' means ``poor.'' On top of that, an average of nearly 3 million people will be cut from SNAP each and every year over the coming decade. These are some of the Nation's most destitute adults as well as many low-income children, seniors and families that work for low wages. That's right. People who work but who don't make enough to feed their families will be cut from this program.

The biggest cut affects at least 1.7 million unemployed, childless adults in 2014 who live in areas of high unemployment. These are poor people. Many don't have the skills or education they need to find a job. This is a group whose average income is about $2,500 a year for a single individual--$2,500 a year--and for most, SNAP is the only government assistance they receive.

This bill also cuts an additional 2.1 million people from SNAP in 2014, mostly low-income working families and low-income seniors. These are people who have gross incomes or assets modestly above the Federal SNAP limits but whose disposable incomes--the income that a family actually has available to spend on food and other needs--are below the poverty line, in most cases often because of high rent or child care costs.

If that weren't bad enough, 210,000 children in those families would also lose their free school meals, and 170,000 unemployed veterans will lose their SNAP benefits. To top it all off, other poor, unemployed parents who want to work but who cannot find a job or an opening in a training program, along with their children other than infants, will be cut from the program.

Mr. Speaker, I remember when combating hunger was a bipartisan issue--when Bob Dole worked with George McGovern and when Bill Emerson worked with Tony Hall. It didn't matter whether you were a liberal or a conservative--ending hunger was a priority. The current Republican leadership has blown all that up.

We should not do this. There are no hearings on this bill, no markup, no semblance of regular order. And for what--to stick it to the working poor yet again? We should be doing everything we can to end hunger now. The Republican bill just makes hunger worse, and it should be soundly defeated.

Mr. Speaker, I urge and I plead with both Democrats and Republicans to stand together, to come together in a bipartisan way, and to demand to end hunger now.

Please, please, my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, reject this Republican leadership bill that is coming to the floor tomorrow. It is cruel. It is immoral. We are much better than this. Reject the leadership bill.

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