OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Include Nutrition Assistance in the FARM Bill

Floor Speech

Date: July 11, 2013
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Unemployed and Low-Income Entitlements and the Safety Net Agriculture and Food Government Budget and Spending

Ms. SEWELL of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express great disappointment in my Republican colleagues for bringing a version of the farm bill that does not include nutrition assistance.

When I joined this great, august body, I was a member of the Agriculture Committee. The Agriculture Committee, time and time again, reauthorized the farm bill. Bipartisanship was always the hallmark. And this is not the hallmark of what we as Americans stand for.

Our minister today just stood up here with us in prayer and said that we would walk justly, that we would do and love mercifully, and that we would be humbled before God. If we are to truly have those words mean something in America, we must take care of our working families, our needy families, our children, in addition to our farmers.

The farmers that I represent in Alabama do not want a farm bill that does not include nutrition assistance. We cannot provide government subsidies to farmers without providing government assistance to people in poverty. It is not what we as Americans stand for.

If we have no further business in this august body this week, we should go home.


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