Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

Floor Speech

Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. Speaker, several weeks ago, we had a deeply partisan debate about cuts to SNAP. The proposed cuts by the majority were then $20 billion--a number that many of my colleagues and I found unacceptable and rejected. The majority has now doubled these cuts to $40 billion a year--nine times the amount passed in a bipartisan vote in the Senate. They have abandoned all attempts at bipartisanship and compromise to satisfy the unreasonable demands of the far right.

Mr. Speaker, we should not be playing politics with a program that means so much to American families. The $40 billion in cuts will slash benefits to as many as 6 million Americans, including 170,000 veterans. The average benefit for SNAP is only $4.50 a day--just $1.50 a meal.

As someone who benefited from food stamps when I was a teenager, I know what the safety net means. This benefit is the difference between a child going to bed hungry or having the energy to focus on school. It is the safety net that allows low-income seniors to be able to both eat and afford medication. In my district, the poverty rate rose from 5.3 percent in 2000 to 9.2 percent in 2011. We need to be finding ways to reduce poverty in our communities, not cutting programs that work, like SNAP.

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