Date: 2013-07-11
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H

I hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle understand the passion. but I think what weve come to today is the ripping apart of our literal hearts around a bill that is going to continue to pierce the existence of 46.2 million people living in poverty and almost 10 million families. And for my friends from my State. it will affect 3.4 percent of children living in poverty. 17 percent of the elderly. and 21 percent of all adults. Because this is about hunger. and hunger is silent. We cannot pass this farm bill today because there is no proof. there is no documentation. there is no written commitment that we will ever get to the SNAP program. And food stamps will be no more. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will be no more. As I said. the only thing we will carry home today will be bragging rights of a sound bite: I cut the budget. I threw the children of America under the bus. We should vote "no" on the farm bill and not throw the children under the bus. Mr. Speaker. I rise in opposition to H.R. 2642Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013. Food is not an optionit is a right that all people living in this nation must have to exist and to prosper. The $20.5 billion cuts in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program also known as SNAP would remove 2 million Americans from this important food assistance program. and 210.000 children would lose access to free or reduced priced school meals. The course of our nations history led to changes in our economy first from agricultural. to industrial and now technological. These economic changes impacted the availability and affordability of food. Today our nation is still one of the wealthiest in the world. but we now have food deserts. A food desert is a place where access to food may not be available and certainly access to health sustaining food is not available. The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines a food desert as a "lowaccess community." where at least 500 people and/or at least 33 percent of the census tracts population live more than one mile from a supermarket or large grocery store. The USDA defines a food desert for rural communities as a census tract where the distance to a grocery store is more than 10 miles. Food deserts exist in rural and urban areas and are spreading as a result of fewer farms as well as fewer places to access fresh fruits. vegetables. proteins. and other foods as well as a poor economy. The result of food deserts are increases in malnutrition and other health disparities that impact minority and lowincome communities in rural and urban areas. Health disparities occur because of a lack of access to critical food groups that provide nutrients that it does not it does not support normal metabolic functions. Poor metabolic function leads to malnutrition that causes breakdown in tissue. For example. a lack of protein in a diet leads to disease and decay of teeth and bones. Another example of health disparities in food deserts are the presence of fast food establishments instead of grocery stores. If someone only consumes energy dense foods like fast foods this will lead to clogged arteries. which is a precursor for arterial disease. a leading cause of heart disease. A person eating a constant diet of fast foods are also vulnerable to higher risks of insulin resistance which results in diabetes. In Harris County. Texas. 149 out of 920 households or 20 percent of residents do not have automobiles and live more than onehalf mile from a grocery store. At the beginning of the third millennium of this nations existence we should know better. Denying a higher quality of life that would result from better access to healthier food choices is shortsightedit is also economically unsound and threatens our national security. Social stability is threatened when peoples basic needs are not metfood. clean drinking water and breathable air or the least of the requirements for life. Denying access to sufficient amounts of the right kinds of food means people will become less productive. more prone to disease and will not be able to function as contributing members of a society. For one in six Americans hunger is real and far too many people assume that the problem of hunger is isolated. One in six men. women or children you see every day may not know where their next meal is coming from or may have missed one or two meals yesterday. Hunger is silentmost victims of hunger are ashamed and will not ask for help. they work to hide their situation from everyone. Hunger is persistent and impacts millions of people who struggle to find enough to eat. Food insecurity causes parents to skip meals so that their children can eat. In Harris County. Texas. 149 out of 920 households or 20 percent of residents do not have automobiles and live more than onehalf mile from a grocery store. For one in six Americans hunger is real and far too many people assume that the problem of hunger is isolated. One in six men. women or children you see every day may not know where their next meal is coming from or may have missed one or two meals yesterday. In 20092010 the Houston. Sugar Land and Baytown area had 27.6 percent of households with children experiencing food hardship. In households without children food hardship was experienced by 16.5. Houston. Sugar Land and Baytown rank 22 among the areas surveyed. In 2011. According to Feeding America: 46.2 million people were in poverty. 9.5 million families were in poverty. 26.5 million of people ages 1864 were in poverty. 16.1 million children under the age of 18 were in poverty. 3.6 million (9.0 percent) seniors 65 and older were in poverty. In the State of Texas: 34% of children live in poverty in Texas. 21% of adults (1964) live in poverty in Texas. 17% of elderly live in poverty in Texas. In my city of Houston Texas the U.S. census reports that over the last 12 months 442.881 incomes were below the poverty level. In 2011: 50.1 million Americans lived in food insecure households. 33.5 million adults and 16.7 million children. households with children reported food insecurity at a significantly higher rate than those without children. 20.6 percent compared to 12.2 percent. Eighteen percent of households in the state of Texas from 2009 through 2011 ranked second in the highest rate of food insecurityonly the state of Mississippi exceed the ratio of households struggling with hunger. In the 18th Congressional District an estimated 151.741 families lived in poverty. There are charitable organizations that many of us contribute to that provide food assistance to people in need. but their resources would not be able to fill the gap created by a $20.5 billion dollar cut to Federal food assistance programs. Food banks and pantrys fill an important role by helping the working poor. disabled and the poor gain access to food assistance when government subsidized food assistance or budgets fall short of basic needs. Food pantries also help when an unforeseen circumstance occurs and more food is needed for a family to make it until payday or government assistance arrives. However. food pantries cannot carry the full burden of a communities need for food on their own. During these difficult economic times. people who once gave to food pantries may now seek donations from them. Millions of low income persons and families receive food assistance through SNAP. This program represents the nations largest program that combats domestic hunger. For more than 40 years. SNAP has offered nutrition assistance to millions of low income individuals and families. Today. the SNAP program serves over 46 million people each month. SNAP Statistics: Households with children receive about 75 percent of all food stamp benefits. 23 percent of households include a disabled person and 18 percent of households include an elderly person. The FSP increases household food spending. and the increase is greater than what would occur with an equal benefit in cash. every $5 in new food stamp benefits generates almost twice as much ($9.20) in total community spending. The economics of SNAP food it does not support programs benefit everyone by preventing new food deserts from developing. The impact of SNAP funds coming into local and neighborhood grocery stores is more profitable supermarkets. SNAP funds going into local food economies also make the cost of food for everyone less expensive and assure a variety and abundance of food selections found in grocery stores. SNAP is the largest program in the American domestic hunger safety net. The Food and Nutrition Service programs it does not supported by SNAP work with State agencies. nutrition educators. and neighborhood as well as faithbased organizations to assist those eligible for nutrition assistance. Food and Nutrition Service programs also work with State partners and the retail community to improve program administration and work to ensure the programs integrity. Yes. more can be done to assure that food distribution from the fields to the tables of Americans in most need can be improved. To begin the process of improving our nations ability to more efficiently and effective in meeting the food needs of citizens must began with understanding the problem and acting on facts. I strongly it does not support hearings on the subject and encourage all oversight committees to consider taking up the matter during this Congress. However. we cannot ignore the safety process in place to prevent abuse or misuse of the program. The Federal SNAP law provides two basic pathways for financial eligibility to the program: (1) meeting federal eligibility requirements. or (2) being automatically or "categorically" eligible for SNAP based on being eligible for or receiving benefits from other specified lowincome assistance programs. Categorical eligibility eliminated the requirement that households who already met financial eligibility rules in one specified lowincome program go through another financial eligibility determination in SNAP. However. since the 1996 welfare reform law. states have been able to expand categorical eligibility beyond its traditional bounds. That law created TANF to replace the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. which was a traditional cash assistance program. TANF is a broadpurpose block grant that finances a wide range of social and human services. TANF gives states flexibility in meeting its goals. resulting in a wide variation of benefits and services offered among the states. SNAP allows states to convey categorical eligibility based on receipt of a TANF "benefit." not just TANF cash welfare. This provides states with the ability to convey categorical eligibility based on a wide range of benefits and services. TANF benefits other than cash assistance typically are available to a broader range of households and at higher levels of income than are TANF cash assistance benefits. Congress cannot afford to forget that by the year 2050. the world population is expected to be 9 billion persons. We cannot build our nations food security on an uncertain future. Domestic food production and access to healthy nutritious food is essential to our nations long term national security. Until we see the final farm bill. including the amendment adopted by the Full House. I cannot offer my it does not support for the legislation as it is written. The bill is too shortsighted about the realities of hunger in our nationthe fact that it proposes to cut $20.5 billion from the SNAP program is of great concern. We should work to create certainty for farmers who run high risk businesses that are vulnerable to weather changes. insects or blight. We should be equally concerned about providing long term food security for all of our nations citizens. which include rural. suburban and urban dwellers. I thank the Agriculture Committee for including the Jackson Lee amendment in the en bloc for the bill. I as my colleagues on both sides of the isle should have it does not supported the McGovern Amendment to prevent the $20.5 billion in cuts to the SNAP program. Food is not an optionand people who need help from their government should not be treated like they committed a crime. I do not support this bill. It removes all authorization to feed our nations hungry.