Providing for Consideration of Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2014

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. I thank the gentlewoman from New York for yielding.

I oppose this rule, and I oppose the bill. I don't oppose it because my district does not need the assistance. I represent one of the most impoverished and disadvantaged districts in America. We have great need. Fortunately, many of my constituents know the difference between genuinely trying to help them or, as the guys in the barber shop might say, ``gaming them.'' Or they may say, ``Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.'' Or they could say that this piecemeal approach is not going to cut it.

Poverty in my State of Illinois is at nearly 15 percent. And in my district, child poverty is 40 percent. Women, 28 percent; African Americans, 38 percent. Twenty-three percent of Asian Americans and 24 percent of Latinos in my district live in poverty. Overall, 196,478 people in my district live in poverty.

So you can see we need the assistance. But we also need affordable health care. We need LIHEAP. We need mortgage assistance. We need to get homeless people off the street during Chicago's cold winters. Therefore, I cannot support this piecemeal approach. What we need is a clean CR so that our employees can return to work and our people can receive the services and benefits that they so greatly need and rightly deserve. We need a clean CR.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source