Farm Bill and Nutrition

Floor Speech

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Mr. CRAWFORD. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman from Pennsylvania for doing such a great job on this. I know he has worked really, really hard on it.

We have talked about the number of committee hearings that have been dedicated to just nutrition. That is because the nutrition title of the farm bill accounts for about 80 percent of the total authorization. So it is really important that we get it right.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express support for the Agriculture and Nutrition Act, specifically, the improvements that we are making here in the critical nutrition title under the leadership of my friend Mr. Thompson, who has done a fantastic job.

Currently, there is a loophole related to heating and cooling allowances that is often used to artificially increase SNAP benefits. States are given the flexibility under the previous iteration of the SNAP program to use the standard utility allowances for heating and cooling to ease SNAP administration.

Households automatically qualify for the SUA if they receive Low Income Heating and Energy Assistance Program, it is called the LIHEAP program, payments, if they receive payments from that program. States, in order to increase SNAP benefits, provide LIHEAP payments of just greater than a $20 minimum threshold, allowing households to qualify for the SUA, thus increasing the SNAP benefits the household receives, even though the household may not have actual heating and cooling expenses.

Our bill requires demonstrated heating or cooling expenses in order to receive a standard allowance for such expenses. We basically removed the automatic availability of the SUA for heating and cooling and ask that households demonstrate actual utility costs to receive the State- determined SUA.

Note that we exempt the elderly from that requirement of documentation, so we will make sure that people understand that they are not being adversely impacted.

My home State of Arkansas is already demonstrating how to implement this practice. In our State, we currently require folks who want to be a part of this program--and, by extension, eligible for SNAP--to demonstrate that they, in fact, have utility bill expenses.

This reform will take what my State is doing and implement it across the entire Nation and ensure that SNAP's initial purpose of helping those who need this program the most is being achieved.

Much of the frustration of my constituents, and many folks across the country, has been about the explosion of enrollees in programs who, quite frankly, don't need the benefits in the first place and are deemed eligible through an administrative shortcut.

It is my hope that more States will see this the same way that my home State of Arkansas does and realize that Federal resources are not infinite and being responsible stewards of this program serves those who need the serving the most. If we enact this reform, they will always be taken care of.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the chairman again for his steadfast leadership and his diligence in all of the hearings that we have had over the last 4 years.

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