Motion to Instruct Conferees on Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this motion to instruct the conference committee to reauthorize America's nutrition and antihunger programs for 5 years.
At the moment, the majority's farm bill extends crop insurance and other agricultural programs for 5 years, but the nutrition portion only reauthorizes food stamps and other programs for 3 years. This 2-year discrepancy would allow for all kinds of shenanigans the next time these programs are up for debate. We should stop that from happening now.
When this majority severed the nutrition title from the farm bill, they broke a longstanding bipartisan compact on antihunger initiatives that goes back decades, connecting the programs that help farmers produce and the programs that help poor families escape hunger. This arrangement separates farm programs from nutrition programs on a permanent basis. They break the coalition that supports this bill. Quite honestly, it is being done to put food stamps at risk. Indeed, this is a shell game.
The critical antihunger programs have been supported by Republicans and Democrats all across the country--the east coast, the west coast, the heartland--because hunger is not a partisan issue. We all have a vested interest in ending hunger in our country. But with this farm bill, the House Republican majority has betrayed this fight. By cruelly cutting $40 billion from food stamps, our most important antihunger program, they are telling over 4 million of our most vulnerable citizens--children, seniors, veterans, the disabled--you may not know where your next meal is coming from.
The majority is making this $40 billion cut, robbing poor families of food, even while continuing to dole out over twice as much--$90 billion--in crop insurance subsidies, taxpayer dollars, to some of the Nation's wealthiest families and agribusiness.
In the Crop Insurance Program, there are no income eligibility requirements. You can be a billionaire and still collect the subsidy. In the food stamp program, you can only make up to $23,000. With that, you can only spend almost $1.50 on a meal. That's the inequity we are talking about here.
There should be a condemnation of what that House majority is trying to do to hunger and nutrition programs--and there is. It has been near universal. Nutrition, agriculture, homeless, seniors, education, and health care organizations--even Republican leaders like former Republican Senator Bob Dole--all have announced their opposition to this reckless and extreme plan.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Mr. PETERSON. I yield the gen tle lady an additional 2 minutes.
Ms. DeLAURO. Let us understand what the cuts to nutrition programs that the majority is suggesting mean in terms of our children.
Roughly 20 percent of these households that receive the benefits have children under the age of 18; 23 percent have children that are 4 years old and under. The damage that hunger does to children is irreparable. If they go to school hungry, they cannot learn; and if they cannot learn, they cannot succeed.
I only ask my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to read the data. Read the report in The Lancet journal just in the last week or so that tells you what the scientific data is that shows what the impact of hunger is on children's brains and their ability to learn.
We know that the learning period for children is from zero to 3. Why would we want to do irreparable harm to the children in this Nation by cutting off food, of which the United States has a great abundance--and overabundance--and yet we want to cut $40 billion from the food stamp program? It is reckless and it is extreme.
I just say to my colleagues, if the farm programs are being reauthorized for 5 years, the nutrition programs should be reauthorized for 5 years, just like they have in the past, with that coalition that is coming from all over the country, region by region, Democrats and Republicans, in one unified farm bill. I urge my colleagues to go in that direction.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source