Providing for Consideration of H.R. Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Agriculture, Rural Development, Energy and Water Development, Financial Services and General Government, Interior, Environment, Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act, and for Other Purposes
Floor Speech
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Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of this rule and the underlying legislation, which funds key health, education, and other priorities that our Nation has simply underinvested in for much too long.
I am particularly appreciative for the increased investments in TRIO--and I would mention that is a bipartisan initiative--and WIC-- Women, Infant, and Children--among other things.
I want to talk now about two amendments that I have offered to this bill, which were made in order under this rule. The first is a bipartisan amendment to increase the Low Income Heating Energy Assistance Program funding by $10 million. In the United States, 40 million households every year are unable to afford their basic household energy needs.
I know in my State the temperature ranges between 55 degrees below zero to over 100 degrees. So it is not optional to have heating or cooling.
In many cases this means choosing between food, medicine, and electricity needs to make ends meet, or leaving a home that is unsafe and unhealthy because of the upper or lower temperatures.
In Wisconsin, only 31 percent of eligible households received LIHEAP assistance in 2020. Increasing the funding available for this program will help ensure that more of our most vulnerable citizens have adequate resources to prevent their energy needs from further straining their budgets.
The second amendment, Madam Speaker, would provide an additional $2 million for school breakfast expansion grants included in the 2010 child nutrition reauthorization. I am so proud that the committee included $10 million for this program in the underlying bill. Every child deserves a morning free of hunger and to have the opportunity to learn, grow, and focus in school without worrying where their next meal will come from.
Currently, out of the 97,000 schools that participate in the school meals program, over 7,000 of them do not provide breakfast. With these additional funds, we can close the school breakfast gap.
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Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. Madam Speaker, with these funds we can close the school breakfast gap and ensure that all students receive breakfast who want it.
Madam Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on the rule and the underlying bill.
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