Date: 1988-08-08
Speaker: DE LA GARZA (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as I may consume. The Speaker. I am pleased to rise in strong support of H.R. 4060. the Emergency Hunger Relief. Act of 1988. At the outset. I wish to thank the subcommittee chairman. LEON PANETTA. and Congressman BILL EMERSON. ranking minority member of the Subcommittee on Domestic Marketing. Consumer Relations and Nutrition. for their hard work and strong determination in achieving a compromise bill that hopefully can be enacted into law before the end of the summer. They and their staffs deserve our most sincere thanks. Hunger in this Nation is not caused by our inability to produce enough food. Indeed. even in a year when we are faced with a terrible drought that has. reduced agricultural production. we are still able to assure consumers an adequate supply of food at affordable prices. Thus. the very idea of familiesnot all that different from yours or minegoing to bed hungry in this great country of ours is one that should be inconceivable to all of us. We must provide them as much compassion as possible. and we must incorporate this compassion in direct actions. This we have done in the bill before the House today. While this legislation will not ensure an end to hunger in America. It is a step in that direction. It will serve as a beacon of hope to the poor and needy of this great country that the Congress is responding to the greatest extent possible. given the current budget problems we are facing. to the plight of hungry Americans. In this regard. I am most proud of the change in our primary national nutrition programthe Food Stamp Programthat provides an increase in basic monthly benefits. This change affects every participant in the program. and increases the average benefit approximately 70 cents in next fiscal year raising to $2.25 in fiscal year 1990. This is the larget increase in benefits for food stamp recipients in over a decade. The Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program ETEFAPI will continue for another year. and the Committee has authorized the U.S. Department of Agriculture to purchase $110 million worth of commodities to supplement surplus commodities for participants in this program. The legislation also authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to set aside $40 million for the purchase and distribution of commodities to soup kitchens and food banks. Mr. Speaker. a very important part of this legislation is directed at improving the efficiency of Food Stamp Program operations through the establishment of a 6percent error rate objective. Those States with the highet error rates will be sanctioned while those whose performance is better than average will not. and enhanced funding will be available to those states with error rates below 6 percent. Other provisions of the bill affecting the disabled. the elderly. farmers. migrants and others should ease the application for and benefits provided under the Food Stamp Program. Outlined below is a sectionbysection analysis of the provisions of this legislation. Funding for the cost provisions is provided under the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 1989 . However. should budget sequestration take place in fiscal year 1989. then those cost provisions above the CBO baseline for fiscal years 198991 will not be implemented. Mr. Speaker. this is a balanced bill that received full support of the Committee on Agriculture. I also urge my colleagues to give it their full support. SEcTrxsYSzcioN ANALYSIS or H.R. 4060