End Hunger in America Now

Floor Speech

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, here we are, 10 days into the Republican government shutdown and just a few days away from hitting the debt ceiling, and the Republican leadership continues to spin its wheels. The American people are rightly blaming congressional Republicans for this shutdown, and they will blame Republicans for a default too.

Every day seems to bring a new Republican strategy: repeal ObamaCare, defund ObamaCare, delay ObamaCare, stage a non-filibuster filibuster, ask for the entire Romney economic platform in order to raise the debt ceiling, yell at park rangers, fund this part of the government, fund that part of the government, pay furloughed employees, pay essential employees, hold a conference meeting, hold a press conference.

Meanwhile, as the Republican Conference tries to get its act together, Americans across this country are feeling the impact of the shutdown, and that impact grows every day. Last month USDA released the annual figures on food security in America. These are the statistics of the number of people who don't know where their next meal will come from, essentially the number of hungry people in this country; and once again we see the effects of the Great Recession showing up in these food security numbers.

According to USDA, over 49 million people are food insecure. That means they are hungry. Seventeen million are children. These figures are virtually unchanged from previous years. It means hunger is not getting better in America. It is not getting worse, but that is no consolation.

While these figures are bad enough, House Republicans apparently thought they should be worse and decided to pass legislation cutting $39 billion from SNAP, our Nation's best, most efficient and effective anti-hunger program. Those cuts would cause hunger to get worse; 170,000 unemployed veterans would lose access to SNAP. Two million kids would be kicked off the free school meal program. Overall, around 4 million people would lose access to SNAP because of these terrible cuts.

Now, that is pretty bad, especially considering that hunger is still a problem in America; but it is still not bad enough for the Republicans, so they shut the government down. Now, I know this shutdown isn't about hunger; it is about irrational demands by a few Republicans. But like the bill cutting SNAP by $39 billion, the impact of the shutdown is beginning to make hunger worst in America.

Look at Nevada, where 362,000 food stamp recipients will see their benefits halt on November 1--not reduced, halted; 425,000 women, infants, and children would see their food benefits provided under WIC halted as well. That is right, nearly 800,000 hungry low-income Nevadans would lose access to food because of this Republican shutdown.

But it is not just Nevada. North Carolina announced on Tuesday that it had discontinued issuing food and nutrition benefits through WIC to women, infants, and children specifically because Federal funding for the program has dried up. Eighty percent of those Carolinians eligible have already received their October benefits, but that means 20 percent of the 264,000 enrolled low-income women, infants, and children will not get the help they qualify for to buy the food they need including formula, fruits, and vegetables.

Now, Mr. Speaker, we are going to continue hearing stories like this as the Republican shutdown continues. More and more low-income families will see the food they rely on taken away from them simply because Republicans in Washington will not open the government.

This is not the way to end hunger now, Mr. Speaker. We will only end hunger now if we finally come together and decide that ending hunger is a priority, that it is something we believe we can do, and that we commit ourselves to accomplishing it.

Mr. Speaker, we can stop hunger from getting worse by reopening the government. We can stop hunger from getting worse by preventing $39 billion in SNAP cuts from being enacted. We can stop hunger from getting worse by preventing the automatic cut to SNAP already scheduled to take effect on November 1 from taking place.

We need to end this Republican shutdown today. Republicans should not let poor Americans go hungry simply because they can't agree on a political strategy in Washington. That is not right. That is not how we should treat our fellow Americans. It is wrong, and they know it. We should be working to end hunger now, not to make hunger worse. We can eliminate it. This is a fight we can win if we just find the political will and courage to do so.

Mr. Speaker, I will conclude by saying once again to my Republican colleagues, bring a clean continuing resolution to this House floor so we can have an up-or-down vote so that we can reopen this government and so we can prevent hunger from getting worse in this country.

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