Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

S. 2366. A bill to amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to establish a permanent, nationwide summer electronic benefits transfer for children program; to the Committee on Finance.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I know that many students across the country are waiting on the edge of their seats and looking forward to school letting out shortly for their summer break. But for many of those kids who participate in school meal programs, the summer can be a pretty uncertain time--not knowing when or where they are going to get their next meal. It can be a stressful time for those kids' parents as well, who have to stretch every dollar they have to feed their family today.

That is a struggle Nicole, a single mom from my home State of Washington, knows all too well. She has been unemployed now for about a year. She has two kids. She has a daughter who is finishing kindergarten and a son who is just finishing fifth grade. They have relied on SNAP benefits to help pay for their groceries and school meals to get help during the school year. But Nicole says that last summer, without school-provided meals, it was particularly difficult to put enough food on the table to feed her kids.

Today I am here introducing a bill that will help families like Nicole's and many across the country. It is a bill to make sure more children can get the nutrition they need during the summer break. When school is in session, millions of kids from low-income families can get free or reduced-price meals through our National School Lunch Program. But during the summer, hunger goes up in this country about 34 percent for families with school-aged kids, according to a study.

Right now we do have a Federal congregate summer meals program, of which I have long been supportive. It is called the Summer Food Service Program. It is very successful in some areas of our country. I always look forward to working with my colleagues to strengthen and expand that program to make sure it is reaching as many children as possible.

But in a study from 2012, summer congregate meals programs only reached about 14 percent of the students who qualified for free or reduced-priced meals during the school year. That adds up to tens of millions of kids across our country who do not have access to meal programs in the summer.

In my home State of Washington, just 9.8 percent of those kids participated in 2012. That means those kids are more likely to deal with hunger or food insecurity. That is unacceptable to me. When it comes to ensuring that our kids grow up with the nutrition they need to learn and to thrive, there are no excuses.

We have to do more to fight summer hunger. That is why I am here today introducing legislation called the Stop Child Summer Hunger Act. The bill is pretty simple. It provides families with an EBT card that will help them afford groceries during the summer months to replace the meals those kids would otherwise have gotten at school. It is based on a very successful pilot program that has proven now to decrease hunger by 33 percent. Some of the demonstration projects had participation rates as high as 90 percent. Scaling up that program with the Stop Child Summer Hunger Act will help more children get the nutrition they need in the summer months.

The bill is fully paid for. We do that by closing a tax loophole that actually encourages U.S. companies to shift our jobs and profits offshore. From my perspective, that is a pretty fair trade. It will encourage companies to keep jobs and profits here in America. At the same time, it will help kids get the nutrition they need during the summer.

Fighting hunger, especially among kids, is an issue that is extremely important to me. I have told this body before that when I was just a teenager--15 years old--my dad, who fought in World War II, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Within a few years he could not work any longer. My mom had to go to work and find a job. It did not pay anywhere near enough to support seven kids and a husband who had a growing stack of medical bills. So for several months when I was young, we had to rely on food stamps. It was not much, but I remember it helping to get my family by during a very tough time. So I know how hard it is for families who are struggling to put food on the table.

As adults, I believe it is our moral responsibility to take care of our children, to make sure they can grow up healthy and to make sure they have every opportunity to thrive and learn. I hope we can live up to this responsibility by tackling this problem and helping more kids get the nutrition they need to live healthy lives. I hope this body can work with me to make sure that kids who are now looking forward to their summer break can enjoy it free from hunger.

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