DeLauro Opening Remarks At Press Conference on Importance of Strengthening Food Stamps

WASHINGTON, DC—Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), othercongressional leaders and advocates held a press conference today on theimportance of strengthening food stamps. Last night the House AgricultureCommittee voted to cut $20 billion from the program. Below are DeLauro'sremarks, as prepared for delivery:

"Good morning, everyone. Thank you for being here. I wish wehad happier news to discuss.

"Before I begin, I want to acknowledge all of the manyanti-hunger and nutrition advocates and organizations who have come out todayto make their voices heard. Thank you for standing up for kids andworking families, and for being champions in the fight against hunger. I alsowant to recognize my colleagues here today.

"In the past 30 years of fashioning policies aimed at debtand deficit reduction, as is being done in the Farm Bill, the key programs thathelp the most vulnerable among us to get by have been protected. Even theBowles-Simpson plan did not cut SNAP to achieve its deficit reduction.

"That includes food stamps, our country's most importanteffort to deal with hunger here at home and ensure that American families canput food on the table for their kids. Right now, food stamps are helping over47 million Americans, nearly half of them children, meet their basic foodneeds.

"But the House Farm Bill seeks to destroy that precedent. Itslashes food stamps by over $20 billion, hurting millions of Americans and oureconomy. By eliminating categorical eligibility, the proposed bill would forceup to two million low-income Americans to go hungry. This could include nearlya million kids. Their bill also kicks roughly 210,000 low-income children fromthe free school lunch program. And it changes the relationship between SNAP andLIHEAP to take benefits from even more low-income Americans – mostly seniorsand working families with children.

"This has been a disturbing pattern with this HouseMajority. Their budget cut over $130 billion from food stamps, mostly byconverting it to an inadequate block grant. And last year, when theHouse Agriculture Committee had to identify $33 billion in 10-year savings fromthe programs of their jurisdiction, they singled out food stamps for all of thecuts. Not direct payments. Not crop insurance. Just food stamps. Keep in mindthat almost 99% of food stamp recipients have incomes below the poverty line.SNAP has one of the lowest error rates of any government program.

"The absence of any real crop insurance reform is especiallyegregious. In 2011, the Government Accountability Office found that nearlyone-third of premium subsidies went to just under four percent of participants.And 26 unidentifiable beneficiaries received at least a million dollars each inpremium subsidies that year. I bet they ate pretty well. I bet they did nothave to worry about how to pay for their family's dinner. Meanwhile, millionsof Americans did have to worry about that.

"There was a lot of talk about religion at the AgricultureCommittee yesterday, a lot of people quoting scripture. If they want to have areligious debate, let's have it. As the US Conference of Catholic Bishops hassaid, ‘Catholic teaching maintains that food is a basic need and a fundamentalright of the human person. SNAP feeds children in need and is essential.'

"And independent researchers agree that food stamps have apowerful positive impact on the health, not just of families, but the entireeconomy. Just last week, Bloomberg ran an article called ‘Best Stimulus PackageMay Be Food Stamps.' So trying to cut the deficit by slashing food stamps iscounter-productive. You will do more harm than good, especially to low-incomefamilies, seniors, and children.

"Cutting food stamps like this is a dereliction of ourresponsibilities to the American people. In the words of Harry Truman, ‘Nothingis more important in our national life than the welfare of our children, andproper nourishment comes first in attaining this welfare.'

"Let us be clear about what we need to do. We need tomobilize and give notice that if this bill persists in cutting food stampswhile protecting the rich, we will do everything in our power to stop it frombecoming law."