Cuts to SNAP Hurt Veterans

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, next week is Thanksgiving. All of us in this Chamber will go back to our districts, and we will celebrate this holiday with our families, usually with a big turkey dinner with all of the fixings and with all of these wonderful desserts; but, Mr. Speaker, for millions and millions of Americans, they won't have anything to celebrate next week because they don't have enough to put food on their tables for their families. There are close to 50 million people in the United States of America--the richest country in the history of the world--who are hungry. Close to 17 million of them are kids.

Mr. Speaker, in the face of these terrible statistics, we have a Congress that is working overtime to make life for many of these people even more miserable. There has already been a cut in SNAP as a result of the ending of the Recovery Act moneys that provided an extra boost to the program. So everybody who is on this program, on November 1, received a cut in their benefit--a benefit that is, on average, about $1.50 per meal per day. They received a cut. On top of that, the House of Representatives passed a farm bill that has an additional $40 billion cut in this program.

That would result in millions of families who currently receive the benefit losing it altogether. It would result in hundreds of thousands of children who right now are able to take advantage of a free breakfast and lunch program at school to lose that benefit. It would also result in about 170,000 veterans losing the benefit.

So I want to talk a little bit today about our veterans and about how they are being adversely impacted by some of the policies that we are pursuing here in the House of Representatives.

On November 1, Jonathan Capehart of The Washington Post wrote a column entitled, ``Oh, SNAP. Veterans Get Dissed by the GOP.'' I want to read the first few paragraphs of his piece:

Remember all the howling by Republicans about the closed monuments and war memorials during the Ted Cruz government shutdown? Remember how they helped World War II vets storm their memorial on the very first day? Remember how one of the Members of Congress snarled at a Park Service ranger for trying to abide by the law and keep the memorial closed to the public? Remember how the likes of Cruz and Sarah Palin railed against President Obama for the cuts to veterans' benefits that resulted from the Cruz-caused shutdown?

``Our veterans should be above political games,'' Cruz said at the Million Vets March on October 13. ``Veterans have proven they are not timid, and we will not be timid in calling out anybody that uses the military as pawns.'' Palin said at the same event, ``We can only be America, home of the free, if we are America, home of the brave.''

So, pardon the forthcoming blue language: Where the hell are they now that a multi-billion-dollar cut to the food stamp program has hit thousands of veterans squarely in their wallets?

He is referring to the cut that occurred on November 1.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, ``In any given month, a total of 900,000 veterans nationwide lived in households that relied on SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, to provide food for their families.''

In any given year or in any given month, millions and millions of dollars of SNAP funds are spent at military commissaries to help feed military members and their families who struggle against hunger.

Mr. Speaker, I raise this issue because there seems to be somewhat of a contradiction here in this people's House of Representatives. We are all very good at kind of talking the talk. People get up time and time again, and they talk about how important and how wonderful our veterans are. We all go back to our districts on Veterans Day and on Memorial Day, and we praise our veterans, and we thank them for their service to their country and for their sacrifice; but when it comes to making sure that our veterans have enough to eat, that they have enough food to put on their tables for their families, we are worse than indifferent in this House of Representatives. We are making things worse for them.

If this cut that the House of Representatives passed goes into effect--this $40 billion cut in SNAP--as I said, 170,000 veterans and their families will lose their benefit altogether. This is on top of a cut in their benefit that they have already received.

I don't know what people think is meant by praising our veterans. But instead of talking the talk, we ought to walk the walk a little bit more. We ought to make sure that the men and women who served our country, who this Congress voted to send over to Iraq and send over to Afghanistan, we ought to ensure that when they come back that they at least have enough to eat. Many veterans that come back have a tough time getting back into the workforce, and yet some of the language that was put in the House farm bill would actually make it almost impossible for them to get this benefit.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues as we approach Thanksgiving to not forget our veterans.

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