Nutrition Reform and Work Opportunity Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to H.R. 3102.

A vote for this bill is a vote to cut $40 billion from U.S. food-aid programs, specifically to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. It's a vote to take food away from millions of Americans in poverty, and it's a vote to poison America's economic growth from the ground up.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the cuts in this bill will cause 14 million people to lose SNAP benefits in the next decade.

The head of the local food bank in my District, the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, told me yesterday that her organization [quote] ``simply cannot fill the meal gap these cuts would create'' [unquote]. This means children, the elderly, veterans, single mothers, and others who rely on SNAP will go hungry.

SNAP benefits are part of America's social safety net. Like unemployment insurance, SNAP is a part of our economic recovery strategy.

And it's been a successful strategy.

According to the Census Bureau, SNAP lifted 4 million people out of poverty in 2012--the highest level on record. That's in addition to making tens of millions more Americans less poor by reducing the gap between their income and the poverty line.

Seventy-five percent of households receiving SNAP benefits have a senior citizen, a child, or a person with a disability. Fifty percent of households receiving SNAP benefits live below the poverty line.

These are the faces of our fellow Americans. These are the people who will be hurt by this pernicious bill.

Vote no on H.R. 3102.

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