Press Releases

M. Speaker, I rise in support of the rule and the underlying bill.

Our communities are struggling. Forty-seven states are facing budget shortfalls, and at least 34 states will cut both jobs and services in this fiscal year unless there is an additional six-month extension of the FMAP program.

All of us are hearing from our governors. In June, a bipartisan group of governors wrote to Congress pleading for an extension of FMAP money because they believe it is the most efficient way to avoid further layoffs and health care cuts that will slow the recovery.

At a time when states like Massachusetts are starting to see unemployment rates decrease, now is not the time to pull the rug out from under them.

If we were to fail our states and not enact this extension, 2,400 teaching, police and firefighter jobs in Massachusetts would be at risk. What would that mean for classroom size, cops on the street and firefighter response? To put it mildly, it wouldn't be good.

This is exactly the type of nation-building we should be focusing on. Here at home. And I wish that my friends on the other side of the aisle and the other chamber could realize that.

It's important to note that this bill is not only essential - it's paid for. In fact, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office finds this bill will cut the deficit by $1.4 billion over the next decade. If only the Bush tax cuts or the Medicare prescription drug benefit or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were paid for, we wouldn't be facing the deficit issues we are today.

M. Speaker, I would be remiss if I didn't express my deep concern with one of the offsets in this bill. Specifically, I think it's awful that the Senate has sent us a bill that cuts future funding for the SNAP program, formerly known as food stamps.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act rightfully including significant funding for SNAP. Economists from the right and left argue that SNAP is the most effective stimulus available today. And we rightfully included funding for increased SNAP benefits in the Recovery Act. Yet the Senate has included a cut in these SNAP benefits that will result in $59 less per month for a family of 4 starting 2014.

The choice, then, is to provide critical aid to the states and protect jobs for teachers, firefighters and police officers today or protect future benefits for those hungry Americans who struggle to put food on their tables. It's not a choice we should be forced to make.

It frustrates me to no end, and quite frankly I'm outraged- that this is one of the offsets. I would ask my friends in the Senate- why do the most vulnerable in our country always have pay more than their fair share? This practice of robbing Peter to Pay Paul must come to an end.

Yet here we are.

M. Speaker, I will support this bill because it will help the people of Massachusetts and the country. This bill will do good things, and it will do them immediately. But I'm casting this vote because we have time to fix this SNAP issue in the future.

I continue to believe that we can properly fund the SNAP program, as well as other domestic anti-hunger programs, and ensure that no person in America goes hungry.

I believe that in the richest, most powerful nation in the world, people shouldn't go hungry. Millions of our fellow citizens, sadly, don't have enough to eat and that's a national disgrace.

Let's improve this bill-- Let's help keep teachers in the classrooms, cops on the streets, and more firefighters in our cities and towns -- and then when we come after the recess do what's right and restore SNAP cuts.

Let's find another offset that doesn't make a bad situation worse. For America's hungry and food insecure, let's, for once, make them a priority.

I yield back the balance of my time.