151 Days Without A Vote to Lower Costs

Floor Speech

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Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, my father-in-law was a teacher and he talked about how in the morning when he would come into work, he could tell the kids that hadn't eaten at home and for them often the first meal they would get was the free or reduced breakfast and lunch.

He would say: You can't learn if you are hungry. When you get the sugar high of eating some of what they serve in schools as your first meal and then you crash around 2 o'clock in the afternoon when it is time for the history lesson, you are not going to learn much.

The SNAP cuts in the big, billionaire bonus bill are literally going to take food off of the table for 42 million Americans, a third of them children. For the first time ever, it is going to force States to pay up to, I think it is, 25 percent of the cost.

In Virginia alone, that is going to be $450 million. That in and of itself may not sound like a lot, but Virginia is also facing a hole blown in its budget through cuts to Medicaid.

Virginia now is being forced to implement work requirements it decided not to implement because when it looked at the other States that did, the administrative costs of the work requirements cost more than the cost to provide care.

These States are facing significant cuts to rental assistance and affordable housing funding. Oh, by the way, these are the same people who are now going to get their healthcare stripped away, who get their food benefits stripped away, who are going to get their rental assistance stripped away.

I did a little math--and I lost my sheet, so I am going on memory for this math, which is dangerous for me--I found it. To qualify for SNAP, a household's gross monthly income must be below 130 percent of the Federal poverty line and their net monthly income below 100 percent. What is that?

For a household of one, that is net $1,255. For a household of four, that is net $2,600 a month. The average rent in Creighton Court in the city of Richmond, which is public housing, for a two-bedroom unit is $1,103. For Gilpin Court, it is $1,396. The same group of people under this bill will be forced to pay a copay for the first time up to $35. In the Energy and Commerce Committee, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle said: Well, they need skin in the game, so what is the big deal? I pay a copay.

My colleagues on the other side of the aisle make a little bit more than $1,255 of which they need to pay a little over a thousand in rent. Now, they have to choose between putting food on the table or paying that copay to go to the doctor to get preventive care and screenings.

What do you think they are going to do? They are not going to the doctor; I will tell you that.

Mr. Speaker, I have talked a lot today, so I am going to be a little briefer than I intended, but I am a preacher's kid, and as I listened to the debate on the billionaire bonus bill, I couldn't help but think of Matthew 25:31-46 where Jesus said that when He came into His glory in Heaven and all the nations of the Earth would come and be divided and He would turn to the righteous and say: Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you cared for me, I was in prison and you visited me.

And the righteous will say: Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or you needing clothes and we clothed you? When did we see you sick or in prison and take care of you or visit you?

And the King will reply: Truly, I tell you, whatever you did for the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you did for me.

And he will say to the others: Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for you. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me. They will say: When did we do this? I am paraphrasing a little bit. Truly, I tell you, whatever you did not do for the least of these, you did not do for me.

Mr. Speaker, I hear some of my friends on the other side of the aisle, including Mr. Speaker who says if you want to know my political philosophy read the Bible. I did. I did. I grew up reading it, and that is the verse that has been sticking in my mind for the last 2 weeks, particularly when we dealt with the Medicaid cuts and the SNAP cuts.

If you think the States are going to be able to make up the difference, you are wrong. We are going to have a whole lot of people who are hungry, who are sick, who are unhoused, who need help. Are we going to do something for them or not?

I ran for office to help people and solve problems. That is not what this bill does.

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