Your Speaker or Your Seniors

Floor Speech

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Ms. CROCKETT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today appalled by the Speaker's debt ceiling bill. Right now, the Speaker stands alone, threatening to not pay bills we owe to advance his personal policy preferences.

If we don't pay our bills, there will be catastrophic consequences for everyone. The interest rate would skyrocket, making it nearly impossible to afford a home or car and closing opportunities for upward mobility for millions of Americans.

The stock market will crater as investors lose faith in the ability of our government to perform even the most basic function because of the Speaker's bill. The result would be millions of Americans' retirement accounts wiped out.

For years, the threat of such economic catastrophe historically made even the threat of default off-limits, but the Speaker knows that what he has is an extreme minority in his caucus and that what he wants is deeply unpopular, so he is trying to hold our government hostage.

He stands alone because he knows that no Democrat will support this ransom, so he needs each and every Republican to fall in line behind him.

I hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle know that their constituents are watching, watching to see who their Representative came to Congress to fight for, your Speaker or your seniors.

The Speaker's bill will add additional work reporting requirements for seniors in their fifties in order to receive basic food assistance. Across the country, there are no less than 3 million seniors who could lose food assistance because of this bill.

My colleagues must make a choice: your Speaker or your seniors.

Because everything in D.C. is filled with jargon, I want to pause for a moment to make sure we all understand who the Speaker's bill is targeting.

The people the Speaker is targeting are seniors in their fifties who don't even have $6 a day for food. That is all SNAP pays, $6 a day for food, but the Speaker's bill would deny even that paltry aid to hundreds of thousands of our constituents.

Soon, those on the other side of the aisle must decide who matters more to them, your Speaker or your seniors.

Make no mistake: This isn't about getting people to work. If you worked twice what was required, a full 40-hour week at minimum wage, which, frankly, is most of what is on the table for these seniors, you would still be on SNAP.

The only way the Speaker's bill saves money, which he does say, is if people have their benefits stripped away, if seniors go hungry.

Each of my colleagues must ask who matters more, your Speaker or your seniors?

The Speaker's bill will kick seniors off SNAP rolls. Many seniors can't find a job at all because they face age discrimination. There is a reason that current law exempts those over 49. To expect them to have the same odds of finding a job as a young recipient is callous and cruel.

Ask yourselves, who did you come to Congress to serve, your Speaker or your seniors?

Even though the bill is only supposed to apply to able-bodied adults without dependents, that claim is laughable.

Many of our constituents in their fifties are grandparents. They have childcare responsibilities even if the child isn't their dependent. Requiring them to neglect their grandchild or else go hungry is cruel and heartless.

I hope my colleagues ask themselves who they came to Congress to serve, your Speaker or your seniors, because so many seniors will go hungry if the Speaker's bill becomes law.

As the pandemic SNAP policies are ending, State agencies are responsible for updating participants' information so those eligible for assistance don't go hungry, but in many States, no outreach or only perfunctory outreach was performed.

My concern is that if the Speaker's bill becomes law, tens of thousands of seniors who think they aren't subject to these reporting requirements will suddenly find themselves without benefits. If for any reason these seniors are denied benefits under the Speaker's bill, they will be ineligible for food assistance for the next 3 years.

When we vote on this bill, we will be voting on a very simple question: support your Speaker or support your seniors.

The burden lies with each of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. It is within your range, your power, to protect our seniors.

Right now, the Speaker stands alone with a deeply unpopular proposal. Each of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle is asked to starve our seniors. If that is the policy of this House, that responsibility will be entirely on your shoulders.

The choice is now yours. Quite simply, each Republican must answer the question: Who do you fight for, your Speaker or your seniors?

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