DeLauro Opening Remarks At Press Conference On Importance Of Strengthening Food Stamps

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), other congressional leaders and advocates held a press conference today on the importance of strengthening food stamps. Last night the House Agriculture Committee voted to cut $20 billion from the program. Below are DeLauro's remarks, as prepared for delivery:

"Good morning, everyone. Thank you for being here. I wish we had happier news to discuss.

"Before I begin, I want to acknowledge all of the many anti-hunger and nutrition advocates and organizations who have come out today to make their voices heard. Thank you for standing up for kids and working families, and for being champions in the fight against hunger. I also want to recognize my colleagues here today.

"In the past 30 years of fashioning policies aimed at debt and deficit reduction, as is being done in the Farm Bill, the key programs that help the most vulnerable among us to get by have been protected. Even the Bowles-Simpson plan did not cut SNAP to achieve its deficit reduction.

"That includes food stamps, our country's most important effort to deal with hunger here at home and ensure that American families can put food on the table for their kids. Right now, food stamps are helping over 47 million Americans, nearly half of them children, meet their basic food needs.

"But the House Farm Bill seeks to destroy that precedent. It slashes food stamps by over $20 billion, hurting millions of Americans and our economy. By eliminating categorical eligibility, the proposed bill would force up to two million low-income Americans to go hungry. This could include nearly a million kids. Their bill also kicks roughly 210,000 low-income children from the free school lunch program. And it changes the relationship between SNAP and LIHEAP to take benefits from even more low-income Americans -- mostly seniors and working families with children.

"This has been a disturbing pattern with this House Majority. Their budget cut over $130 billion from food stamps, mostly by converting it to an inadequate block grant. And last year, when the House Agriculture Committee had to identify $33 billion in 10-year savings from the programs of their jurisdiction, they singled out food stamps for all of the cuts. Not direct payments. Not crop insurance. Just food stamps. Keep in mind that almost 99% of food stamp recipients have incomes below the poverty line. SNAP has one of the lowest error rates of any government program.

"The absence of any real crop insurance reform is especially egregious. In 2011, the Government Accountability Office found that nearly one-third of premium subsidies went to just under four percent of participants. And 26 unidentifiable beneficiaries received at least a million dollars each in premium subsidies that year. I bet they ate pretty well. I bet they did not have to worry about how to pay for their family's dinner. Meanwhile, millions of Americans did have to worry about that.

"There was a lot of talk about religion at the Agriculture Committee yesterday, a lot of people quoting scripture. If they want to have a religious debate, let's have it. As the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has said, "Catholic teaching maintains that food is a basic need and a fundamental right of the human person. SNAP feeds children in need and is essential.'

"And independent researchers agree that food stamps have a powerful positive impact on the health, not just of families, but the entire economy. Just last week, Bloomberg ran an article called "Best Stimulus Package May Be Food Stamps.' So trying to cut the deficit by slashing food stamps is counter-productive. You will do more harm than good, especially to low-income families, seniors, and children.

"Cutting food stamps like this is a dereliction of our responsibilities to the American people. In the words of Harry Truman, "Nothing is more important in our national life than the welfare of our children, and proper nourishment comes first in attaining this welfare.'

"Let us be clear about what we need to do. We need to mobilize and give notice that if this bill persists in cutting food stamps while protecting the rich, we will do everything in our power to stop it from becoming law."

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