Providing for Consideration of Conference Report on H.R. 2419, Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008

Floor Speech

PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 2419, FOOD, CONSERVATION, AND ENERGY ACT OF 2008 -- (House of Representatives - May 14, 2008)

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Ms. DeLAURO. I thank the gentleman from California for yielding, and I thank him for his perseverance in this effort as well.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to support the rule and the underlying bill, historic change that will meet the nutritional needs of all Americans.

I want to thank the Speaker for her vision and clear priorities on this bill and Chairman Peterson for his tireless leadership and perseverance. Thank you for welcoming my input on something so critical as the nutrition title.

Today, as the country faces rising food costs, food banks cannot handle the demand, and families struggle just to keep up. Today 35.5 million Americans live in households where not everyone has had enough food in the United States of America.

With this bill we are finally taking the right steps to provide people with a fighting chance, ending the erosion in food stamps by increasing the standard deduction and the minimum benefit, which has been frozen at $10 for the past 30 years, then indexing them to inflation. Commitments to help almost 11 million people, families with children, seniors, and people with disabilities.

Yet the current administration is looking for ways to undermine the legislation. The administration has argued against expanding eligibility by excluding retirement, education savings, and combat pay when determining that eligibility.

What does it say when our soldiers who fight so bravely for our Nation abroad are forced to scrape and scrounge for food upon their return?

And this bill does more. It increases funding for the Emergency Food Assistance Program, including an immediate infusion of $50 million to address supply shortages as more families than ever are relying on food banks, soup kitchens and food pantries for help. There is also a dramatic increase in funding for the fruits and vegetables snack program for our schools giving more children greater access to healthy fresh fruits and vegetables at school. And we are providing $84 million in funding for the McGovern-Dole program which helps reduce child hunger, promotes education and represents a powerful opportunity for our Nation to export goodwill around the world.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill. For too long we have failed to meet our obligations as a Congress and as a Nation, failed to act while too many Americans have gone without adequate food, healthy food, and are facing hunger in our Nation today. Today, we can begin to do something about it.

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