Congressional Black Caucus - Hunger in America
Floor Speech
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Mr. HORSFORD. Mr. Speaker, this evening, we come to this Special Order to bring attention to the issue of hunger in America.
In just a little more than over a week, many of us will spend time around our tables celebrating Thanksgiving dinner. And as we give thanks for the incredible benefits that we enjoy, there are many Americans who will go without. They will go without a nutritious meal. They will go without meals in the classrooms or after school. Many of our veterans will go without meals as well.
And so tonight, the Congressional Black Caucus uses its hour in this Special Order to bring attention to these important issues, particularly at this time in the debate about our budget.
Earlier this month, on November 1, the 2009 Recovery Act's temporary increase in funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, expired, resulting in an additional benefit cut to all households. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, this is approximately a $25-per-month or $300-a-year cut to nutritional benefit programs for a family of four. SNAP benefits will now average less than $1.40 per person per meal in 2014, down from $1.50 previously.
Bringing attention to these issues is critical, particularly, as I said, when we are entering negotiation on the farm bill as well as negotiation on the budget. So tonight you will hear from members of the Congressional Black Caucus who see these issues as priorities in these negotiations.
I would like to extend time now to the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, a lady who serves on the Agriculture Committee and who has been a champion for the issues of SNAP as well as other food assistance programs in the farm bill. I yield to the gen tle lady from Ohio, Representative Fudge.
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Mr. HORSFORD. Thank you to the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. As she said, we will fight on. These are issues that are not going to go away.
With the farm bill negotiations, I am optimistic that, despite the fact that when that bill was brought here to the House of Representatives in October and there was an incomprehensible $40 billion cut to SNAP, we can bridge that gap between now and the end of the year and pass a farm bill that includes the important policy for farm subsidies in this country that are necessary, but do so by not including special subsidies for Big Agriculture and other corporations while cutting $40 billion in SNAP food assistance to the poor.
Again, these are issues that are critically important to American families across this great country. They are issues that we are hearing about daily from our constituents.
Many people don't realize that it is not only good for the individual who is on food assistance, but it is also good for our economy because this is money that goes back into our local grocery stores that keeps people employed and helps our local economy. So it is a benefit in two ways.
I would now like to turn attention to the gentleman from Indiana, Representative Carson from the Seventh Congressional District, for his remarks during this Special Order.
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Mr. HORSFORD. I would like to thank the distinguished gentleman from Indiana for his remarks and for highlighting the fact that this is an issue that affects all American families across this country. We all know someone who relies on SNAP benefits or we have come into contact with individuals--our neighbors, our friends, our veterans--who rely on these benefits as well. To somehow suggest that this is an issue that only a certain number of communities should care about is simply false, and it is why we are having this conversation, Mr. Speaker. This is a conversation that we have on each and every Monday that we have the opportunity to come to the floor of the House in order to raise important issues like the one we are raising tonight on hunger.
I want to encourage people who are listening right now to send us your comments and to share your experiences with SNAP benefits. You can do so by sending us a tweet at #cbctalks, and we will try to share your comments and your questions so that we can have this conversation here on the floor of the House, because it is a conversation that many families across America are confronting.
I would like to invite up my esteemed colleague from New York, with whom I have the honor of co-anchoring the
CBC Special Order hour. It has been a great opportunity to get to know him and to work with him on these important issues. I would like to start a bit of a conversation with him, if I can, on these issues. There are a number of things I would like to touch on with the gentleman from New York.
The first is on which households are most affected by this food insecurity across America. Will you touch upon that? Then I would like to talk about how the attack on SNAP also plays into the Affordable Care Act.
I yield now to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Jeffries).
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Mr. HORSFORD. Thank you to the gentleman from New York, the co-anchor for this Special Order hour, Representative Jeffries. I look forward to a dialogue on this, but let me just underscore what it is we are faced with in this House of Representatives.
Our colleagues on the other side, the House Republicans, proposed $40 billion in food assistance cuts to low-income families over 10 years. This would affect 210,000 children who currently receive free school meals and would affect some 170,000 veterans--yes, veterans--who also depend on SNAP benefits in our country, and would cost an estimated 55,000 job cuts in just the first year of cuts alone.
At a time when we should be growing the economy, adding jobs, helping our veterans, helping the poor, and those who are striving to be part of the middle class, the bill that was passed in October has these devastating cuts to children, to seniors and, yes, even to our veterans.
Now, I have said before, and I will say it again, we should not be cutting the safety net for our most vulnerable while maintaining costly government subsidies for the well-off industries. That is what my colleague from New York just talked about. Littered in this farm bill are subsidies for Big Ag, some of which they themselves didn't even ask for and they know should be expiring in order for us to preserve funding for children, seniors, and veterans.
So it is not a Nevada child in my district who receives just over $4 a day to eat who is the problem with the Federal budget deficit. The problem is corporate welfare and the special interest giveaways that litter our Tax Code. It is time that we put a face to the individuals who are benefiting from these programs. That is what we are here to spotlight tonight.
I would like to share just three quick stories of constituents who have shared with me in my office their impact and reliance on the food assistance program, known as SNAP.
The first is Alma. She lives on Social Security in my district. She currently receives $932 a month. Out of that she pays all of her bills--her rent, her utilities, she gets all of her necessities, and has very little left over. She has about $91 a month that she can live off for food. Now, with these proposed cuts, it would be $54 based on a history of cuts and adjustments. She doesn't want to be on SNAP benefits; but without that safety social net, she will go hungry.
Another constituent, Erin, is currently a pre-law student and is unemployed and recently found out she is pregnant. She is working really hard to make a better life for herself and her family, but right now she can only provide for herself; but she has a child to take care of and the SNAP cuts will hurt her ability to do that.
And, finally, there is Bertha, whose monthly SNAP benefit is $310 a month. She is a single mom of four children, and that SNAP benefit gives her about 2 weeks' worth of food. Her paycheck barely covers daily expenses, so any cut--$10, $20, $30--will have a serious impact on her family. And, oh, by the way, her kids are 9 months, 12 years old, 14, and 18.
So these are the real people who are being affected by these cuts, and it is not just the SNAP program. Unfortunately, this targeting of the poor for savings throughout the budget is nothing new by our colleagues on the other side. Those who are striving to break into the middle class face serious barriers to entry because the House Republicans' budget cut job training, they are about to cut unemployment benefits, they have cut child care assistance and funding for Head Start.
They are also trying to undermine the Affordable Care Act, which provides health insurance to many who could not afford it otherwise. I would like to tell you some stories of constituents in my district who have voluntarily shared their story and given me permission to share their story of the success of the Affordable Care Act.
One is Michelle. She is a constituent in Pahrump, Nevada, which is about an hour outside of Las Vegas in my district. Michelle enrolled in a plan on the exchange that will save her $200 per month and allow her access to her OB/GYN services closer to home. She calls her enrollment in the program an
``overwhelmingly positive experience.'' Michelle is currently on a HIPAA-guaranteed plan that costs her about $565 per month. If she gets sick and needs an urgent visit to the doctor or a mammogram or other OB/GYN service, she has to drive to Las Vegas from Pahrump, which I said is about an hour outside.
After enrolling in the Affordable Care Act, she will save more than $200 a month and have access to local urgent visits and OB/GYN services in her community in Pahrump. Mr. Speaker, now is not the time to turn back the clock or leave constituents like Michelle behind.
There are other constituents who have also shared their stories with me--Jeronimo and Teresita. They have been without health insurance for 10 years and were finally able to receive affordable insurance through Nevada Health Link. So, if you are watching, go to nevadahealthlink.com and sign up today.
There is another one--Victor and Yumaria. They had never had insurance before. They are a father and a daughter who were approved for a qualified health plan at an affordable price, and they are very happy and thankful to finally have insurance.
Then there is Lisa, who is also enrolled in Medicaid for her and her family, which she is entitled to based on the eligibility requirements.
In my home State, there are some 21 percent of Nevadans who are currently uninsured. More than 30 percent of the children in my State are uninsured. So not only is it the cuts to SNAP, the cuts to Head Start, to job training, to vital services that so many families depend on, but it is this undermining of vital social safety net programs that people in the middle class are striving to be a part of.
So I want to ask my colleague, Representative Jeffries, from New York, what are some of the positive economic impacts to the SNAP program? How can we help to reinforce this message that not only is this good for the families that we are talking about, but it is also good for the economy? And what about those 55,000 jobs that could be cut in the first year alone if the House GOP plan to cut these services goes into effect?
I yield the time to the gentleman from New York.
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Mr. HORSFORD. I would like to underscore a couple of points that the gentleman is making here. The first is the fact that this does disproportionately affect the poor and those who are striving to become a part of the middle class. At the same time, there are corporate subsidies, billions of dollars of corporate subsidies for the agriculture industry in the farm bill and in other legislation that has come before this House that they will move expeditiously and then leave the food behind in the farm bill, for the first time that I am aware of that we have approved a farm bill without also including the food assistance component to it. They later came back and included it, but with a $40 billion cut.
And the positive economic impacts of this cannot be underscored either. I hear from representatives from the retail industry who tell me that SNAP creates some $340 million in farm production for each $1 billion of retail that is generated. There is some 3,300 farm jobs that are created for each $1 billion of funding that is provided for; that for every $1 billion of SNAP benefits, it also creates between 9,000 to 18,000 full-time jobs. So not only is this the right thing to do, not only is it the morally conscionable thing to do, it is also good for the economy.
And so as we make this argument, how important it is to debunk some of the myths surrounding SNAP, one of them being that there is fraud in the SNAP program and that is why the cuts aren't going to hurt the poor or those who are striving to be part of the middle class.
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Mr. HORSFORD. I thank the gentleman.
I would like to debunk another myth, and that is: just let the charities handle it. We have a number of great nonprofits out there, the church community, the faith-based community, can step up and fill the void.
Well, I would like to turn your attention to this chart which shows that, with all the great work that the nonprofits and the faith-based community is doing in addressing hunger and food insecurity, that amounted to about $5 billion in estimated value of all food that is distributed by U.S. charities this year. That compares to $5 billion that has already been cut since November 1 because of the setback, the so-called hunger cliff. This does not take into account the additional cuts that are on the horizon both in the Senate plan, which is about $4.1 billion of additional cuts, compared to the House GOP plan, which again is estimated to be $39 billion.
Now, I support the charities in my local communities. Three Square is our local food bank. They do a phenomenal job in southern Nevada in helping both our rural and urban areas, getting the needs of the families and the food that they need in those communities.
While my family and I will be making a donation to our local food bank and helping families get meals for Thanksgiving, that is not going to absorb the $39 billion of cuts that are proposed by the other side. This is just another one of those examples where the arguments don't support reality.
We are living in reality. The families who are struggling on these benefits whose stories we have shared tonight are dealing with reality. It is not a mother who is raising her children who is struggling to make ends meet who wants to rely on SNAP benefits that is the problem with our budget. It is simply not. It is not the veterans who have served our country with distinction and honor and who have come back, and because of the environment in their communities, they are also relying on SNAP benefits. They are not the problem with the Federal budget deficit. It is not the seniors at the Pahrump food bank that I visit who literally are having their meals cut back because of their draconian budget cuts. These American families are simply relying on a safety net that has been there and should be there in the wealthiest country in the world.
Now, I agree with my colleague who says that from a budget standpoint we have to tackle these problems, but there is a way to do it right. There is a way to do it without costing more in human toil, and there is a wrong way to do it. And the proposal by House Republicans to balance the budget on the backs of our children, our seniors, our veterans, the working poor and those who are striving to be part of the middle class is not it.
We will work with you on other ways to balance the budget, but it shouldn't be by making more families food insecure.
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Mr. HORSFORD. Mr. Speaker, in that remaining time, I would like to yield to my colleague, Mr. Jeffries, for any concluding remarks that he has, and then I will close out this Special Order hour.
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Mr. HORSFORD. I thank the gentleman from New York for your leadership and commitment to this issue. You have come to this floor on many occasions to talk about the important issues facing our country, and you are always inclusive and factual. You make a compelling argument for why this body needs to take up these issues.
Let me just conclude, Mr. Speaker, by saying not only do we reject $40 billion in cuts to the food assistance program, but we are actually calling on our colleagues on the other side to work with us, to help make SNAP work even better for America's families, to build on the great things that SNAP already does. This program is actually one of the most successful antihunger programs that we have. It lifts more families out of poverty than most other programs.
Let me just close by sharing one example that we can be addressing. The example I want to close with is the Thrifty Food Plan, which is currently how SNAP benefits are currently calculated. The TFP is the lowest cost of the four food plans developed by the USDA, and it is unrealistic for a family of four.
A family of four receiving $632 per month doesn't go very far in buying those fresh fruits and vegetables that my colleague talked about at the local farmers market. The current TFP formula fails to calculate difficulties associated with the lack of food availability. The fact that in many of our communities, both rural and urban, the accessibility to nutritious, wholesome meals and fruits and vegetables isn't even available. That falls disproportionately on the poor to have to pick up those costs. For example, it doesn't include the cost of transportation. It doesn't include food preparation time that so many working families struggle with. It leaves the average family of four with a $200 monthly benefit shortfall.
Again, this is simply unacceptable. As the wealthiest Nation in the world, no American--not our children, not our veterans, not our seniors--should be forced to survive on what is now $1.40 per meal. That is why, Mr. Speaker, we are here this hour to bring attention to this issue and to call upon our colleagues to work with us, to not implement these cuts and to make these programs work--not only SNAP, but Head Start and the other vital programs that so many families are depending on as part of that social safety net and the fabric of the American society.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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