Reject Snap Cuts in the Farm Bill

Floor Speech

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, the farm bill should be about helping our farmers and strengthening our food and nutrition programs. It shouldn't be about beating up on poor people.

As the House Agriculture Committee prepares to mark up the 2018 farm bill, I rise to express my deep concern and my outrage with reports that Republicans on the committee are considering drastic cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program known as SNAP.

Press reports indicate that the majority intends to dismantle the core function of SNAP to pay for a huge, new, untested bureaucracy, while cutting and even eliminating benefits for millions of the most vulnerable Americans, including seniors, older workers, individuals with disabilities, working families with children, and other struggling adults.

We are still awaiting the full details on the plan, which was crafted behind closed doors without any input from Democrats on the committee-- I am not even sure any input from Republicans on the committee. But this is what we have learned: that the Republicans intend to focus their cuts in three areas.

First, we are hearing Chairman Conaway's bill will eliminate broad- based categorical eligibility, an important State option that helps working families with kids and seniors qualify for benefits when times are tough.

More than 40 States currently implement this option, which allows them to raise income cutoffs and ease asset limits.

Broad-based categorical eligibility also mitigates any cliff effect, albeit small, that exists in SNAP, and eliminating it would penalize families from accruing modest savings to help lift themselves out of poverty.

Estimates suggest that at least 400,000 eligible households will lose their SNAP benefits if broad-based categorical eligibility is eliminated, and 265,000 students will lose access to free lunches at school.

I mean, really?

Mr. Speaker, this is shameful.

We are also reading that the Republicans are looking to cut benefits for households with out-of-pocket utility expenses by disconnecting the link between SNAP and the Low Income Heating Energy Assistance Program known as LIHEAP. Doing so will require those with utility expenses to produce the actual bills for each expense rather than receiving a standard allowance. It will force the elderly, it will force people who are disabled and working families to make another trip to the SNAP office and cut benefits for those who are unable to produce the receipts.

Mr. Speaker, we expect that this proposal will cut benefits by at least $6.6 billion.

Lastly, we have heard the Republicans intend to focus much of their damaging proposal on harsher work requirements that target vulnerable groups of adults who do not have children or other dependents, known as ABAWDs.

We are reading that the Republican majority is proposing to develop a massive new bureaucracy and subject 3 to 5 million vulnerable Americans to new mandatory work requirements.

I want to remind my colleagues that the ABAWD population is diverse. Many have limited access to education, with more than 80 percent having no more than a high school education or a GED. Some have mental health issues, difficult histories of substance abuse, or are ex-offenders with nowhere else to turn. And as many as 60,000 of them are veterans who have served our country.

These childless adults on SNAP are often extremely poor and sometimes experience chronic homelessness. They turn to SNAP as a safety net when they lose their jobs, their hours at work are cut, or their wages are so low that they are unable to make ends meet.

Under current law, ABAWDs are already subjected to severe time limits on the program. They are only provided access to benefits for 3 months out of a 3-year period and are completely cut off from assistance after that time if they have not been able to find work.

Mr. Speaker, this Congress should be committed to helping people who are living in poverty and working to help make their lives easier, not cutting them off from assistance when they most need it.

Estimates suggest that as many as 1 million people will lose assistance if these incredibly damaging work proposals advance.

The House Agriculture Committee held 23 hearings on SNAP over the past several years. I attended every single one. We heard testimony from dozens of witnesses, Republicans and Democrats alike; and not one witness, not one, Mr. Speaker, suggested that we make the drastic changes to the program that will cut off those most in need of assistance, let alone the ones whom the Republican majority are advancing.

Quite frankly, I don't know where these ideas are coming from, maybe some rightwing think tank, but they are certainly not coming from the Agriculture Committee.

Let's be clear about what is happening. Speaker Ryan made clear a few weeks ago that he views the farm bill as a key piece of his misguided welfare reform agenda. And just yesterday, President Trump issued a new executive order aimed at forcing SNAP recipients off of assistance.

The Republican farm bill isn't about trying to help people. It is about politics and it is about appeasing the rightwing of the Republican party. It relies on negative stereotypes to advance the goal of undermining our safety net programs and cutting people off of help who need it most. It is disgusting.

Mr. Speaker, I plead with you, I plead with Chairman Conaway and Republicans in this Congress to stop this attack on those who are living in poverty. SNAP is an important program. It is about providing people food, and I urge my colleagues on both sides to reject any and all proposals that will undermine this important program.

Mr. Speaker, the war against the poor must stop.

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