Press Releases

May 7, 2014

M. Speaker, I’ve come to this floor once a week during the 113^th Congress to talk about hunger – specifically how we can End Hunger Now if we simply muster the political will to do so.

Technically identified as Food Insecure by the Department of Agriculture, the nearly 50 million hungry people who live in this country are hungry not because they are lazy or don’t want to work but because they don’t earn enough to be able to put food on their table. Simply, they don’t know where their next meal will come from.

Now, this has not been a particularly kind Congress to those who struggle with hunger. We’ve seen nearly $20 billion cut from our nation’s pre-eminent anti-hunger program known as SNAP. SNAP is a lifeline for the 46 million Americans who rely on it to have something to eat each day. Yet this Congress decided that Americans who live at or below the poverty line can simply absorb massive cuts to SNAP. Sadly, Republicans and some Democrats joined together to cut a benefit that was already meager and didn’t last through the month even before these cuts took effect.

These cuts are bad and hurtful, but just as hurtful is how these Americans were described and depicted on this floor during the debate about cuts to SNAP. During the debate on the farm bill, one Republican Member came to the floor to justify cuts to SNAP as a way to prevent murders, rapists and pedophiles from getting a government benefit. Poor people have been routinely chastised as “those people”, as part of a culture of dependency.

I’m sick and tired of poor people being demonized. I’m sick and tired of their struggle being belittled. We’re here to represent all people – including those struggling in poverty.

Unfortunately, the insults continue. For the most part, we try to keep campaign rhetoric out of the debate on the House floor.  However, today I want to highlight some rhetoric that is even more vile than even some of the language used on this floor during the SNAP cut debates.

A few weeks ago, a Republican candidate for United States Senate in South Dakota actually equated SNAP recipients to wild animals. That’s right. We’re now at a point where it’s apparently okay for political candidates to denigrate our fellow citizens by calling them wild animals. Dr. Annette Bosworth shared a viral image on her Facebook page that said the following – quote:

“The food stamp program is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They proudly report that they distribute free meals and food stamps to over 46 million people on an annual basis. Meanwhile, the National Park Service, run by the U.S. Department of the Interior, asks us ‘please do not feed the animals.’ Their stated reason for this policy being that … the animals will grow dependent on the handouts, and then they will never learn to take care of themselves,” the post continues. “This concludes today’s lesson. Any questions?” end quote.

M. Speaker, I was taught to love my neighbor. I was taught to care about people and to strive to make everyone’s life better. And what is being treated as political dialogue violates those teachings and my core beliefs in humanity. We can all do better. Some of us may need a hand up in order to get by, but that doesn’t mean that they are lesser people for it.  They deserve our respect – and they deserve our help while they are struggling.

Dr. Bosworth should apologize to the 46 million of her fellow Americans who need SNAP to put food on their tables. She should apologize to the nearly 50 million of her fellow Americans who struggle with hunger and don’t know where their next meal will come from. And Republicans should repudiate her disgusting remarks.

I’m an optimist. I believe we can end hunger and I believe we can end poverty in America if we just make the commitment to do so. But hurtful rhetoric like this simply divides us and does nothing to help us achieve this worthy goal of ending hunger now.

I yield back the balance of my time.