Congressional Record United States Th of America PROCEEDINGS and DEBATES of the 113 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION
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E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 113 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION Vol. 160 WASHINGTON, MONDAY, JULY 14, 2014 No. 109 House of Representatives The House met at noon and was the commitment to make it happen. ensuring that poor people have access called to order by the Speaker pro tem- Unfortunately, Congress has very con- to food. But until we do something pore (Mr. LAMALFA). sciously decided to make hunger worse. about wages—and the first thing we f In November, this Congress let a should do is to raise the minimum massive, across-the-board cut to SNAP wage, Mr. Speaker, so that people can DESIGNATION OF SPEAKER PRO take effect. The result was a benefit actually afford to live their lives—we TEMPORE cut of $30 per month for a family of will be forced to either let people go The SPEAKER pro tempore laid be- three. Imagine living on a fixed in- hungry or help them buy their food. fore the House the following commu- come, relying on food stamps to put SNAP is that lifeline that helps put nication from the Speaker: food on the table, and then seeing your food on kitchen tables. WASHINGTON, DC, monthly allotment cut, without the By the way, a majority of people who July 14, 2014. cost of food going down. It is hard to rely on SNAP actually work for a liv- I hereby appoint the Honorable DOUG make those numbers work. ing. LAMALFA to act as Speaker pro tempore on On top of that across-the-board cut, Opponents of SNAP continue to de- this day. this Congress passed a farm bill that scribe it as fraught with fraud, waste, JOHN A. BOEHNER, cut an additional $8.5 billion from and abuse. This is absolutely false, pe- Speaker of the House of Representatives. SNAP. Thankfully, a number of Gov- riod. The Center on Budget and Policy f ernors have stepped up, covered those Priorities recently released a report MORNING-HOUR DEBATE costs, and ensured that this cut would explaining that the rates of both over- not impact poor people in their States. and underpayments have fallen consid- The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursu- But not every State did the responsible erably in recent years. In fact, the cen- ant to the order of the House of Janu- thing, and poor people in those States ter found that less than 1 percent of ary 7, 2014, the Chair will now recog- will see an additional cut of $90 per food stamps go to ineligible people. nize Members from lists submitted by month. It is time we hear from people who the majority and minority leaders for Make no mistake, Mr. Speaker, this are struggling to make ends meet. I morning-hour debate. is an assault on poor people. was pleased that my friend, Congress- The Chair will alternate recognition Part of the problem is that very few man CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, the ranking between the parties, with each party Members of Congress have even the member of the Budget Committee, in- limited to 1 hour and each Member faintest clue what it is like to be poor vited Tianna Gaines-Turner to testify other than the majority and minority in America. How many Members of before the Budget Committee last leaders and the minority whip limited Congress have actually visited food week, at the request of Congresswoman to 5 minutes, but in no event shall de- banks, talked to SNAP recipients, or BARBARA LEE of California. bate continue beyond 1:50 p.m. stayed overnight in a family shelter? Chairman PAUL RYAN has held five f How many of my colleagues have even hearings on the 50th anniversary of the looked at a WIC, LIHEAP, or Medicaid war on poverty, and this is the first END HUNGER NOW application, let alone tried to fill one time a poor person actually testified The SPEAKER pro tempore. The out or gone through the approval proc- before the committee. It is amazing Chair recognizes the gentleman from ess? The answer, Mr. Speaker, is very that it took so long to hear from a per- Massachusetts (Mr. MCGOVERN) for 5 few. son who is actually trying to dig her- minutes. Too many of my colleagues either self and her family out of poverty. Mr. MCGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, being turn a blind eye to the poor or go out That is the good news. If you want to poor in America is hard work. Despite of their way to dismiss their struggles. hear the bad news, you should watch what some of my colleagues and many Many of these Members who don’t take some of the questioning she endured at right-wing pundits might think, it sim- time to learn about the struggles of the the hands of some of my Republican ply isn’t easy to be poor in America. poor are actually dispensing mis- colleagues. Mr. Speaker, week after week, I come leading information and are advocating Mr. Speaker, we need to hear more to this floor to talk about how we can for cuts to programs they mistakenly from people like Ms. Gaines-Turner, end hunger now. It is a simple concept. refer to as bloated and fraught with and we need to work even harder to end We can end hunger if we muster the po- fraud, waste, and abuse. hunger in America. litical will to do so. We have the food Take SNAP, for example. Yes, it is a I will close by saying to my col- and we know how to do it. We just need large program. We spend a lot of money leagues that the poor in America are b This symbol represents the time of day during the House proceedings, e.g., b 1407 is 2:07 p.m. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. H6139 . VerDate Sep 11 2014 13:48 Oct 06, 2015 Jkt 079060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 4634 Sfmt 0634 E:\RECORD14\JUL 2014\H14JY4.REC H14JY4 vlivingston on DSKHW7XVN1PROD with CONG-REC-ONLINE H6140 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE July 14, 2014 more than statistics; they are real peo- LOSS OF JOBS IS A FAILURE Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, I wish ple. It is long past time this Congress (Mr. WILSON of South Carolina to speak about the Internet Tax Free- made their plight a priority. asked and was given permission to ad- dom Act. Interstate commerce has blossomed f dress the House for 1 minute and to re- vise and extend his remarks.) with the wires and connectivity that RECESS Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. the Internet has provided us for these The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursu- Speaker, an alarming admission has last couple of decades, and since 1998, ant to clause 12(a) of rule I, the Chair shown itself in the June unemployment the Internet Tax Freedom Act has pro- declares the House in recess until 2 report. For the 49th time in 50 months, hibited your Internet access bill from p.m. today. there are more people dropping out of lighting up like a Christmas tree as it Accordingly (at 12 o’clock and 5 min- the job search than those who have has on your telephone bill. It has aided utes p.m.), the House stood in recess. found a new job. More people are giving those who want to access the Internet by allowing those costs to stay down, f up than succeeding. This reveals the real unemployment rate as 11.2 per- without burdensome taxes being added b 1400 cent, not the claimed 6.1 percent. on. Hardworking Americans are suffering If ever there were an invention that AFTER RECESS by losing jobs at the hand of a failed is truly interstate commerce, it is the The recess having expired, the House jobs policy—at the hand of President Internet. We could be standing side by was called to order by the Speaker pro Obama and his pen. A sad revelation of side and could send each other a tweet tempore (Mr. DENHAM) at 2 p.m. the President’s failure is that now 14 or a post on Facebook or even an email, and it could go through a whole f million more Americans have depended on food stamps under his failed policies host of States on its way, in order to PRAYER since he was elected. The definition of get to the person who is standing right next to you. The Chaplain, the Reverend Patrick ‘‘success’’ is having a job and not being Only two people have ever voted J. Conroy, offered the following prayer: forced to depend on food stamps. against the Internet Tax Freedom Act, God of the universe, we give You House Republicans will continue which was originally enacted in 1998, thanks for giving us another day. working to create jobs by passing legis- and every 4 years, we have had to As the Members of this people’s lation that puts Americans back to renew that. Now, Chairman BOB GOOD- House deliberate these days, give them work in good-paying opportunities. LATTE is bringing this up again, so as the wisdom and magnanimity to lay Over 40 jobs bills have passed the to make this permanent, to add cer- aside what might divide us as a people House, but are now stuck in the Sen- ate. tainty and to keep costs low.