Upcoming Hunger Crisis

Floor Speech

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, last Friday, the President, finally, ended the longest government shutdown in our Nation's history.

For 35 days, activity at several government agencies halted. The wages of hardworking public servants were being used as bargaining chips to push a medieval solution to what should have been a modern discussion on how to protect our borders.

The President seemed tone deaf to all the devastation that came with the government shutdown. At one point, he said that he would keep our government shut down for ``months or even years.'' In a speech on Friday, he stunningly said that Federal workers were encouraging him to continue the shutdown.

I would love to know who he was talking to, because that is the opposite of what I was hearing from my constituents and Federal workers all across this country. There aren't many people out there who can afford to work for free, much less people who are willing to forego their paychecks for a stupid, ridiculous campaign promise. No one should be expected to work for weeks without pay. What the President did, by shutting down our government, was disrespectful to our Federal workers.

If the government shutdown continued for a few more weeks, programs like SNAP and WIC, and child nutrition programs, would have run out of money, putting millions of families at risk of food insecurity.

Last week, I heard from one of my constituents in Ware, Massachusetts. She is a single mom who is disabled, and she depends on programs like Social Security and SNAP every day to help put food on the table for her two children. She was worried about a lapse in SNAP funding because, for a while now, she has been going without meals so that her kids can eat. She is barely able to provide for herself, but she is making sacrifices that any parent would make to provide for her children.

If the President decides to shut down the government again in a few weeks, he could provoke a full-blown hunger crisis in this country.

Low-income families should not have to worry about where their next meal is coming from just because the President wants taxpayers to pay for his wall. In fact, government employees might need SNAP benefits themselves, if their pay is cut off again.

In the past 4 weeks, I only can say how grateful I have been to the American people who have demonstrated incredible compassion to those impacted by the shutdown. Countless businesses provided free meals and resources to help families through rough times.

Yesterday, I was at Jose Andres' World Central Kitchen's Chefs for Feds initiative, where he is feeding Federal workers who have not been paid. As of yesterday, they still have not been paid.

While many families have accepted help, they still took on expenses that couldn't be recovered. Many families went into debt, just to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. Others took on interest, late fees, penalties, and payment deferrals, not because they did anything wrong, but because their President thought he could strong-arm Congress.

These are people who have jobs, show up, and work every day for their country. The least we can do is pay them and keep their government running.

This administration might not understand why families need resources like food banks, but I think the rest of us do. Unlike the President, we don't all have a rich family who can loan us money. Unlike the Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, not all of us have investment fortunes to fall back on. While living paycheck to paycheck might not be a reality they understand, it is a reality for millions of families who depend not only on their jobs, but also on programs like SNAP and WIC to survive.

Government shutdowns and spending gaps have real consequences for real American families. They cause confusion, backlogs, delays, and discord. It could take months and years for us to fully recover from the past 35 days.

What is particularly ironic about the shutdown, Mr. Speaker, is that all of this could have been avoided if the President signed the bipartisan bills we sent him back in December.

The President should never again hold the American people hostage to get his way. I will do all I can to fight against using public servants as bargaining chips. I will do all I can to help protect programs like SNAP and WIC, and child nutrition programs. They need to keep running.

Three weeks of funding is just a patch on the hunger crisis that this country will soon face if we don't pass another comprehensive spending bill. SNAP, WIC, and child nutrition programs matter to people's lives.

Families, children, farmers, and food businesses don't deserve this, and there is no time to waste. There is no time like the present. Let's end hunger now.

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