Protecting Social Safety Net
Floor Speech
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Ms. SEWELL of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, I applaud the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Evans) for leading this Special Order hour.
Mr. Speaker, I especially want to acknowledge the Congressional Black Caucus for always being the ``Conscience of the Congress'' and for taking on the topic of tonight, which is the social safety net and how important it is as a lifeline for so many Americans.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak out against the efforts to dismantle our social safety net and the programs that help working Americans make ends meet.
Our Federal health, antihunger, and poverty programs are the lifeline for millions of Americans and their families. Every year, our Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, feeds 9.5 million families. Social Security keeps over 22 million Americans from falling into poverty. And Medicare ensures that 44 million men, women, and children have access to the care they need to stay healthy. These families are hanging by a thread, and with every cut to our health and antihunger programs, that thread becomes thinner and thinner.
In Alabama, I have seen the difference that these programs can make firsthand. I have met working parents who rely on SNAP to put food on the table for their children. I have met seniors who, after a lifetime of work, are able to get by only because of their Social Security check. I have met mothers who could not feed their children if it weren't for the maternity care that they get through Federal health programs. For these working parents, seniors, and children, our social safety net means the difference between a warm home and homelessness. It means a difference between a hot meal and going to bed hungry.
Last year in Alabama, I met a farmer named Hank, who was able to afford healthcare for the first time in his life because of the Affordable Care Act. And after Hank signed up for ObamaCare, tragedy struck. His hand was caught in a hay baler, requiring immediate emergency care. But because of the healthcare he received through the Affordable Care Act, Hank was able to pay for his trip to the emergency room and, most importantly, his family did not lose that farm.
That is what our social safety net does. It helps people when their time of need is most. It is a promise that no matter the hardship you face, we will never let you fall between the cracks. We, America, the land of plenty. We, Americans, don't let other Americans fall through the cracks. Whether your family faces a health crisis or layoffs; or you are caring for a new child, we are not going to let you fall into poverty.
Giving up on this promise is what I believe the Republican agenda has done. Giving up on this promise is what makes the Republican attacks on our social safety net so disturbing. It is a promise that we, as Americans, make to other Americans, that we will have a social safety net that will capture people in their most vulnerable time of need.
The tax bill that Congress and the Trump administration passed in December repealed the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate. That move drove healthcare costs for families and will result in 13 million more uninsured Americans. It was unnecessary, but it was a step that this administration took. It was a step that ripped from 13 million Americans their health insurance.
Just 2 months after the passage of the tax bill, President Trump proposed a budget, the President's budget, that would cut $500 billion from Medicare, $1.4 trillion from Medicaid, and $72 billion from Social Security disability. If these proposals were signed into law, more children would have gone hungry, more seniors would have fallen into poverty, and more Americans would be unable to afford to get sick.
In the Ways and Means Committee this week, Republicans are holding a hearing to discuss limiting access to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, TANF. At the same time, the House is debating reauthorizing a farm bill that would eliminate food assistance for 400,000 families and cut school lunches for 265,000 students.
This Congress is not just cutting a hole in our social safety net. Republicans are selling the net in its entirety in order to pay for the tax scam bill that they passed in December.
When President Trump and this Congress passed the GOP tax scam bill, they mortgaged the future of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security to give massive tax breaks to Wall Street and the richest Americans. They put our health and antihunger programs into jeopardy and on a chopping block in exchange for more trickle-down economics.
Mr. Speaker, after decades of stagnant wages, my constituents are no longer willing to wait for trickle-down economics to trickle down to them, especially when it means massive cuts to the Federal programs working families rely on.
Lives are at stake, Mr. Speaker. That is why the Congressional Black Caucus, led ably tonight by my colleague from Pennsylvania, is discussing the social safety net and why we will continue to discuss those programs that are the lifeline of so many Americans.
Why am I here? I am here because I represent Alabama's Seventh Congressional District, a district which is my home district. I proudly hail from the Seventh Congressional District. The Seventh Congressional District is the poorest district in the State of Alabama. The median income for a family of four is $32,000. But, Mr. Speaker, we are not asking for a handout, we are asking for a hand up. We need Federal assistance to make sure that our children don't go hungry, to make sure that those who work a lifetime have Social Security to live on when they are old.
It is important that we remember that these social safety net programs keep Americans afloat and keep working Americans still working, being able to provide food and nutrition to their children, being able to buy drugs that are lifesaving for them to continue to live. It is critically important that we remember that the social safety net is not just for minorities, it is for all Americans when they need it--when they need it. It is a promise that America has made and a promise that the GOP and this administration continues to break.
Lives are on the line. That is why I am calling on this Congress and this administration to abandon its attacks on the social safety net. Instead, we should be passing legislation that puts working people first. I am calling on this Congress to help keep our promise to the American people that no one will be left behind. As the richest Nation in the world, keeping that promise is not only within our power, it is our obligation.
Mr. Speaker, I again thank my colleague, Congressman Evans from Pennsylvania, and the Congressional Black Caucus for this Special Order hour and for continuing to remind people that we are Americans and we, as Americans, don't break our promise. Let's not break our promise when it comes to Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security; let's not break our promise when it comes to the nutrition of our students; and let's not break our promise when it comes to working people who have worked all their lives for Social Security and need only to live off of it now.
Mr. Speaker, I again thank the Congressional Black Caucus for its courage to continue to speak power to truth.
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Ms. SEWELL of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, I absolutely will.
As my colleague just said, I think what I want people to remember is that we, as Americans, do make promises to other Americans. We do it all of the time.
The promise that I am talking about with social safety net is a promise that we won't leave other Americans behind. We can't be the land of plenty and have people struggling each and every day.
In my district, there are parts of my district that have water and sewer issues, sanitary issues, in 2018. No one in America should not have a flushing toilet. In my district, there are people who live like that.
I believe that the promise of America is a promise that we will do all we can to make sure that no American falls through the cracks.
We have to remember that all of us go through trying times. These programs are transitional programs. They are there to catch people when they are falling, to give people the opportunity and the training that they need to get back on their feet, to give them the opportunity to be working Americans again, and to give them a dignity to continue to be able to afford to take care of themselves.
I think that we need to remember that the American Dream comes with it an obligation, and I believe that that obligation is an American promise to all Americans that we won't rip social safety net programs away from them, but, instead, we will thoughtfully provide opportunities for training. The skills gap is real, and I think it is really important that we, if we are to address the future of work in America, acknowledge that we are leaving lots of Americans behind, and we, as a Federal Government, should take that as a challenge and meet that challenge to close the skills gap.
In many ways, the skills gap is an opportunity gap as well. In order to provide people who need opportunities the most, we have to be willing to step up and provide the resources for them to be able to retrain and retool.
It is critically important. The dignity of work is something that is critically important to most Americans, all Americans.
My district has the largest unemployment. When I took office in 2011, the average unemployment in my 14 counties was near 15 percent. It was 14.7 percent. And while Tuscaloosa is doing great and Birmingham is doing great, cities like Selma, that I grew up in, had 21 percent unemployment.
What people needed was an opportunity to get back on their feet. I dare to think about all the Americans who were helped by having the Affordable Care Act, by having Medicare and Medicaid, by having the assistance of the Federal Government to get back on their feet.
I am happy to report that the average unemployment in my 14 counties is not where we want to be, but we are at 6.3 percent. So it is not at the 3.9 or so that the national average is, but we are a far cry better than we were at the 15 percent. So these people are working.
So social service programs were meant to help people get back on their feet. I just think that people think about the fraud and abuse.
None of us want fraud and abuse when it comes to our programs, but I can tell you that 70 percent of the folks who receive SNAP in my district have children under the age of 17.
So when I fight for SNAP, when I fight against the massive cuts that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to have, I am fighting for those children to have food to eat. I am fighting for the millions of seniors who are on food stamps who depend upon it to provide nutritional assistance.
So I think that that promise is something that we all should not only honor, but take as a badge of honor here in the Nation's Capital and fight every day to provide opportunities for all Americans.
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