Providing Food Stamp Safety Net

Floor Speech

Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, our farms and ranches produce food products in amounts that greatly exceed our nutritional needs. There is no reason for anyone in this country to go hungry. And yet, that is a daily reality faced by many poor families.

The food stamp program provides a small but essential safety net to meet the nutritional needs of children, the elderly, the disabled, and those who fall on hard times when our economy sheds jobs.

The proposed cuts to the food stamp program included in the House farm bill are unacceptable and cruel. Poor nutrition leads to poor health outcomes and long-term developmental problems in children. It does not save money. It simply transfers costs to those who cannot pay those costs and needlessly increases suffering. We can afford to feed all of our citizens. A farm and food policy that cannot deliver nutritious meals to all Americans is indeed failed policy. We can and must do better.

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