Hunger and the Ryan Budget
Floor Speech
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Mr. TONKO. Thank you, Representative DeLauro, and thank you for leading us in what is a very important hour of discussion as we address some of the critical choices before this House. As my good friend and colleague, Rosa DeLauro, from Connecticut indicated, our budget, our budget outcomes are a sum total of our priorities, what has value in our society. What are those sensitivities that we express? What are those outright requirements, basic foundational requirements of our society?
I would suggest to you that one of those basic needs is to enable people to have the soundness of nutrition, to enable us to feed families that have stumbled across difficult times. What we have at risk as we speak here this evening on this House floor is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
The SNAP program touches one in seven Americans. That is a staggering statistic, and for every $5 in new SNAP benefits that we offer, they generate as much as $9 in economic activity, almost a two-time economic factor. In my home district in upstate New York, in the Capital Region, some 23,000 households are utilizing SNAP funds. One in four of those SNAP recipients are 60-years-old and older.
Then we also have situations where three and four have had at least one member of the family out of work in the past 12 months. We have many children; one in two on SNAP are under 18 years of age.
This tells us there's a growing need out there. We have had a tough economy, and people have stumbled across tough times. Why is this so important to discuss right now? Because before the end of this month there will be an effort made through this House--they are asking that the Ag Committee come up with cuts that are brutal.
They are asking for the Ag Committee to come up with a sum total of $33.2 billion. Put right onto the chopping block are SNAP funds. So we are affecting the weakest amongst us, the most hungry amongst us, and we're not recognizing that those dollars invested in these families will recirculate into our regional economies.
This is a sound program that ought to be continued. There needs to be sensitivity shown, there needs to be prioritization of a very important factor here. That is sound nutrition for our American families. I have seen it, I have witnessed it firsthand in our district. It works, it works well. We need to set this as a high priority, and I thank Representative DeLauro for allowing me a few moments of time to share concerns on behalf of the good people that I represent in the 21st District of upstate New York.
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