Snap Benefits Are Needed By 42 Million Americans

Floor Speech

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Ms. PRESSLEY. Mr. Speaker, before we began this Special Order hour, I approached Congresswoman Hayes to thank her for her leadership in pulling this together. She said: You are welcome, but I am so sorry we have to do this at all.

I am also sorry, as are we all. It is such a shame.

I thank Congresswoman Hayes for her leadership and partnership in our fight to eradicate hunger and for convening us this evening.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in solidarity with the over 50,000 SNAP beneficiaries in Massachusetts' Seventh Congressional District, as well as the 41-plus million across our country.

Parents who choose to go hungry because there isn't enough to feed both themselves and their children, they would rather make that sacrifice than threaten the cognitive development and nutrition that their children need to thrive and, certainly, to support their readiness to learn.

I rise in solidarity with those families who, given the high cost of housing and food, are struggling because incomes are not keeping pace.

Mr. Speaker, food insecurity is on the rise, but it doesn't have to be. Congress should not advance a farm bill that cuts $30 billion in SNAP funding.

Now, to be clear, we are not here due to a deficit of resources for SNAP. We are here due to a deficit of empathy, a deficit of empathy for those who are food insecure, a lack of empathy for our most vulnerable and marginalized neighbors.

This Republican cut to our Nation's largest nutrition program will disproportionately harm our seniors, veterans, children, adults with disabilities, and working families.

In my home State of Massachusetts, this cut will impact one in six residents, over 1 million people, people who depend on SNAP to put healthy food on the table.

That alarming statistic is worse for Black and Latino families who are twice as likely to face food insecurity.

For decades, SNAP has been a critical tool in reducing hunger for low-income people, lifting millions out of poverty, and improving health and well-being.

To make it plain, food is medicine. Food is life. We should not tolerate the suffering of our neighbors as they live in anxiety and fear, wondering where their next meal will come from.

Republicans need to stop playing with people's lives. Hunger is a humanitarian crisis, a moral failing, and a policy choice.

I urge my colleagues to choose compassion and care over cruelty and callousness and support full funding of SNAP.

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