Bread for the World's Annual Hunger Report

Floor Speech

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring attention to and highlight Bread for the World's annual hunger report. This year's report is entitled, ``Ending Hunger in America.'' Frankly, it couldn't be more appropriate or timely.

Mr. Speaker, over 49 million Americans go hungry every year, and we in the Federal Government--we in this Congress--are not doing nearly enough to fight to end hunger in this country. In fact, over the past 6 months, Congress stood by and let an $11 billion cut to the premier antihunger safety net program, SNAP, take effect. To make matters worse, Congress followed up by enacting another $8 billion cut to SNAP as part of the farm bill. We should all be ashamed.

The fact is Congress continues to make it harder and harder for the hungry in America to make ends meet and put food on their table. Although the Obama administration came into the office under the most difficult economic conditions in nearly a century, they also came in with a lot of promise. In fact, President Obama came in with, among other things, a pledge to end childhood hunger in America by 2015. That goal was achievable. Unfortunately, we have gone backwards over the past 5 years.

While I still believe there is time for the Obama administration to turn this around and make some real headway in the fight to end hunger, the sad reality is we are not going to end child hunger in America by 2015, and may not even make a significant dent in hunger by the end of this administration.

Just because President Obama will not meet his stated goal doesn't mean we should give up. That is why I am encouraged by this report from Bread for the World. First and foremost, it is refreshing that this report is honest and blunt. It rightfully states that hunger is a subset of poverty and that we can't truly end hunger without addressing poverty.

Just look at a few of the statistics listed in the report:

The average incomes of the top 1 percent of households rose by 19.6 percent in 2012, while the incomes of the other 99 percent grew just by 1 percent.

Nearly two-thirds of SNAP recipients are children, elderly, or disabled. Among SNAP households with children and at least one working-age, nondisabled adult, 62 percent work while receiving SNAP and 87 percent work in the prior or subsequent year, which hopefully should put to rest this distortion that somehow people on SNAP don't want to work.

Another statistic here is that while children make up roughly 24 percent of our total population, they comprise one-third of the Nation's poor.

Mr. Speaker, it is clear that poverty must be addressed because that is the root cause of hunger. But Bread for the World lays out achievable and timely goals, goals that are not pie in the sky but actually doable. They call an end for hunger in America by 2030, and they do so in a four-point plan: one, a jobs agenda; two, a stronger safety net; three, human capital development; and four, public-private partnerships to support community-led initiatives against hunger.

They call for achievable goals of a 25 percent reduction in hunger by 2017, a 50 percent reduction by 2023, and completely ending hunger by 2030. We can do this if we make the political decision to focus on and commit to ending hunger.

I fully support this plan. I only want to move quicker to achieve the goal of ending hunger. This report rightly states:

Ending hunger in the United States will require leadership not only at the Federal level, but also the State and local levels.

We already have Governors and mayors who are working to combat hunger. Governors Deval Patrick of Massachusetts and Don Beebe of Arkansas are committed to this effort. Former Boston Mayor Tom Menino was a leader; and I know the new mayors of New York and Boston, Bill de Blasio and Marty Walsh, are just as committed. And they aren't the only ones, but we need more help and commitment. The White House should convene a conference on food and nutrition to build on the recommendations in the Bread for the World report and come up with a comprehensive, holistic plan to end hunger in America.

Hunger at its core is a political condition. We know how to end it. We have the food and the resources to end hunger once and for all; we just don't have the political will to do so. Bread for the World, through this annual report and through their everyday actions, is trying to build the political will to end hunger in America. I know we can do it.

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