Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2007

AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2007

Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Chairman, a massive experiment on poor people in Texas has been a true disaster. Mr. Baca seeks to ensure that all Americans are protected from the same thing happening to them.

Apparently, there were some people, who thought that Accenture could do just as good a job in responding to food stamp inquiries as it did dodging its fair share of taxes by moving off to Bermuda. They were wrong.

Even our Republican comptroller, as Mr. Baca has noted, says we have had a storm, ``a perfect storm of wasted tax dollars.'' Many members of our Texas delegation this very week have written to the Governor saying that we believe ``assisting families with nutrition and health care is not an expense, it is an investment in our community,'' and noting that face-to-face assistance by our public employees cannot be substituted by a machine, with turning poor people over to the Internet or a phone call in a distant city instead of a human being.

Moreover, our Texas State locations have ``well-trained eligibility employees.'' Those are the employees that our Texas Governor proposed to dismiss. We need to keep them there, and this amendment would help accomplish that.

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