Community Services Block Grant Modernization Act of 2022

Floor Speech

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Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 5129, the bipartisan CSBG Modernization Act, and in support of my amendment to the bill.

I appreciate the chairman for his support of my amendment and for bringing this bill to reauthorize the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG), which supports critical efforts to help those living in poverty, to the floor.

The CSBG supports a comprehensive effort in our communities to help families find jobs, obtain housing and food, and achieve self- sufficiency.

CSBG funds are to be used for activities that have a ``meaningful and potentially significant impact'' on causes of poverty. The law broadly defines allowable activities including education, help finding employment, removing obstacles to self-sufficiency, and maintaining adequate House. But the actual use is determined by local communities through a needs assessment.

This reauthorization reflects a renewed commitment to streamline and revitalize the program's stated purpose: to reduce poverty through support for Community Action Agencies that improve economic security of low-income individuals and families and create new opportunities in the communities where they live.

There are sixteen CSBG funded Community Action Agencies in Wisconsin including the Social Development Commission in Milwaukee.

One of the challenges low-income individuals and families in Wisconsin and elsewhere in our country face every day is food insecurity. In the richest country on this plan, too many low-income individuals and families find themselves struggling to feed themselves and their families each and every day.

According to Feeding America (as of March 2021), an estimated 680,330 Wisconsinites (11.7 percent or just over 1 in 8), including 1 in 5 children, experienced food insecurity in 2020. That includes 147,000 food insecure people in Milwaukee County alone.

Feeding America Wisconsin likewise noted that its food banks saw an average sustained increase in demand for food assistance of 40-55 percent in the first months of the pandemic. But I know I don't need to remind anyone that food insecurity has long been a problem in our country.

This problem is only worsening as food prices rise while at the same time, federal supports that have helped these families keep food on the table, such as the American Rescue Plan's child tax credit improvements and the USDA's school meal waivers, are coming to an end.

Vulnerable communities most at risk for food insecurity include seniors and the disabled living on fixed incomes, people of color, families with children.

My amendment would strengthen efforts to address nutrition and food insecurity through the Community Service Block Grant. As noted by WISCAP, ``food insecurity is foremost not a condition, but a symptom--a particularly painful and persistent symptom--of our local, state, and national failure to fundamentally confront and eliminate economic inequality. Food insecurity stands at the crossroads of a host of causal factors--social, corporate, economic, cultural, personal, educational, and governmental--with which it is deeply intertwined. When households lack sufficient income to meet their basic needs-- whether housing, utilities, health care, education, childcare, and transportation--families will first prioritize inflexible bills--like rent, electricity, heat, gas that cannot be negotiated--thus reducing amount of money in the household budget to buy food. Thus, economic insecurity `translates into' food insecurity.''

As we modernize and improve the CSBG for the 21st Century, we must make sure that we do not forget the need to help families put and keep food on the table.

I urge my colleagues to support my amendment and the underlying bill.

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