Providing for Consideration of H.R. 2642, Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013

Floor Speech

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Ms. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, apparently, it was not enough for the House majority to decimate the nutrition title the last time we considered the farm bill a few weeks ago with the $20 billion cut. When they couldn't get the majority of Republicans to vote for it because it just wasn't cut enough, they just eliminated the entire nutrition title--the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the Emergency Food Assistance Program, the Commodity Supplemental Food Program. These are fancy names and acronyms for the programs that allow seniors, young children, and the disabled to stock their food pantries. I can't wrap my mind around the shameful nature of this moment, a moment when we are moving forward with the farm bill and leaving behind 47 million of our Nation's hungry.

Now, it has been asserted, Mr. Speaker, that the House leadership is not attempting to starve vulnerable families but merely wants to expedite the passage of the all-important agricultural components of the bill by removing the extraneous nutrition title. Since 1965, we have reauthorized our antihunger programs alongside our agriculture-related policies in a marriage; but at this moment, the House has filed for divorce, and the primary breadwinner is abandoning two-thirds of the family, consisting of children--young, babies--the elderly, and the disabled. H.R. 2642 is a deadbeat majority's proposal to avoid child support, elderly subsidies, and food assistance to the disabled of 47 million people.

What kind of message are we sending with the passage of this bill? We are telling our Nation's hungry that

Congress is willing to turn a blind eye and that food is an extraneous concern of the Congress.

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