Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026
Floor Speech
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Chair, it is now nearly 11 o'clock at night. This is nuts. What the hell is wrong with you people? You guys are bringing this farm bill to the floor 3 years late in the middle of the night. It is prime time in Guam, for God's sake.
Republicans spent the whole day fighting with each other. You know what most Americans spent doing today? Working, going to school, taking care of their kids, living their lives, wondering, praying, if this institution might give a damn about their hopes and dreams, their concerns and fears.
What Republicans have shown time and time again is that they don't care. If they did, they would not be bringing this farm bill to the floor, because this bill makes hunger worse. It means more kids go to bed without food, more seniors end up in the ER after taking pills on an empty stomach, and more parents put groceries back on the shelf.
Hunger is a political condition. It is the result of decisions made in this Chamber. Republicans decided in their big, ugly bill to make hunger worse. With this farm bill, they are deciding to keep it worse by locking in massive cuts to food assistance.
Forty-eight million people in this country cannot afford food. As a Congressman and as an American, I am ashamed of that. I am ashamed that in a nation as rich and powerful as ours, the people in charge of this town don't seem to give a damn.
SNAP is food for seniors. It is food for families, food for veterans, and Americans with disabilities. That is the majority of who is on SNAP.
When it comes to the rest, most have a job. They work 40, 50, 60 hours a week, and they still can't keep food in the fridge.
People don't want to be on SNAP. We are talking about 6 bucks a day, for God's sake, and they need help because we have a broken economic system. They need help because the average price of a pound of ground beef is now higher than the hourly Federal minimum wage. They need help because our tax system rewards wealth instead of workers. They need help because grocery prices are too damn high, and Trump's war and his tariffs are making them worse.
Instead of helping everyday people, Republicans take away their food and use it to give billionaires another tax break. It is outrageous. It is immoral, and it is wrong.
This farm bill should address hunger. It does not. It should strengthen our food system from the farm field to the kitchen table. It fails that test miserably.
By the way, Republicans are running this place in a way that is an embarrassment, a disgrace to the institution and the people we represent.
It is hard to keep track of all of the shady side deals this Speaker is making and breaking on the floor today. Quite frankly, I wouldn't trust this Republican leadership to tell me the correct time. But based on what I have heard, we will be coming back to Rules Committee on this bill after the district work period.
I want to put you all on notice: I intend to offer, among other amendments, Representative Luna's proposal to protect proposition 12, which was, unfortunately, left out of the rule that we are debating today.
The American people are watching. They are sick and tired of what this Republican majority is doing. How dare you bring a bill to the floor that makes hunger worse in this country. How dare you bring a bill to the floor that doesn't help regular farmers. How dare you bring a bill to the floor that is filled with all these giveaways to special interests. Vote ``no.''
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Chairman, I have no problem with these amendments en bloc. What I have a problem with is all of the amendments that were blocked by this Republican majority.
Mr. Chairman, 362 amendments were offered to this farm bill by Republicans and Democrats, and 305 of those amendments were blocked. They were blocked. Bipartisan amendments were blocked 80 percent of the time. Democratic amendments were blocked 92 percent of the time, and Republican amendments were blocked 70 percent of the time.
My Republican friends, I guess, are okay with having the majority leadership block their own amendments. I mean, it is ridiculous. This is an important bill. It is midnight, and we are on the floor debating the farm bill, a 5-year authorization. This is shameful.
To block hundreds of good, legitimate amendments by Democrats and Republicans because, what, you don't want to deal with them, you don't want to debate them, or it is inconvenient to debate more amendments at midnight? That is ridiculous.
The chairman of the committee may be proud of this bill. That is what he says. I am ashamed that we are bringing a bill like this to the floor--a bill of this significance and a bill that, quite frankly, is going to have an adverse impact on my constituents.
Please don't sugarcoat the SNAP cuts. Millions of people have already lost their SNAP benefits, and the worst hasn't even happened yet. We are going to increase hunger in America. That is not going to make America healthy again by making America hungry again.
We can do a hell of a lot better, but blocking hundreds of amendments--Democratic amendments, bipartisan amendments, and Republican amendments--this process stinks.
Again, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this flawed farm bill. Let's start all over again. Let's do this the right way. Let's debate it in the light of day so the American people know what the hell we are doing here.
Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
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