May 6, 2010 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — Extensions of Remarks E769 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS OBESITY IS A NATIONAL THREAT No child should have to go hungry and all Schiff; Heinrich; Delahunt; Johnson, children should have access to enough food, Eddie Bernice; Dingell; Davis (IL); Pe- and the right food, to help them to achieve ters; Fattah; Green, Gene; Rodriguez; HON. JAMES P. McGOVERN their potential. The federal child nutrition OF MASSACHUSETTS Davis (CA); Rothman; Cummings; programs are a critical tool for addressing Payne; Lewis (GA); Yarmuth; Herseth IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES these challenges. These programs provide Sandlin; Owens; Kind; Weiner; Thursday, May 6, 2010 children access to nutritious food and meals Berman; Nadler; Rahall; Edwards (MD); Mr. MCGOVERN. Madam Speaker, today, throughout the year through the National Lofgren; Paulsen; Gutierrez; Teague; School Lunch program, the Child and Adult Congresswoman JO ANN EMERSON and I will Speier; Harman; Slaughter; Schauer; Care Food Program, and the Summer Food Hirono; Moore (KS); Scott (GA); Cao; deliver a letter to Speaker PELOSI supporting Service Program. These programs fill in crit- President Obama’s request for $1 billion per Kennedy; Watt; Marshall; Kildee; ical gaps for families in poverty as well as Berkley; Garamendi; Moran (VA); those who are struggling in this economy. year in additional funding for the Child Nutri- Thompson (MS); Sarbanes; Higgins; For some children, the meals provided tion Programs. Two hundred nineteen Mem- Sestak; Hare; Andrews; Melancon; bers of Congress—Republicans and Demo- through the child nutrition programs are the only healthy and nutritious meals they will Jackson Lee; Kilroy; crats—joined together in supporting this his- ´ eat each day. Velazquez; Boswell; Roybal-Allard; toric request. The Education and Labor Com- Similarly, the Special Supplemental Pro- Young (AK); Halvorson; Cohen; mittee is working on a bill that will meet this gram for Women, Infants and Children serves Butterfield; Cleaver; request, but we must be sure they have the a unique role for low-income women and Kilpatrick; Napolitano; Hall (NY); proper funding to improve access to and qual- their children by providing nutrition edu- Honda; Arcuri; Altmire; Langevin; ´ ity of our children’s school meals. Last week, cation, supplemental foods and services to Lujan; Lowey; Eshoo; Pascrell; Acker- address nutritional risk. The evidence dem- man; Christensen; Schwartz; Johnson former Generals Shalikashvili and Hugh onstrates that this program provides for a (GA); Kagen; Connolly; Crowley; Ryan Shelton wrote an Op-Ed on how obesity is healthier start in life for children. (OH); Perlmutter; now a national security threat. They support Today nearly 45 million individuals are Markey (CO); Engel; Rangel; Kratovil; President Obama’s request because it will served by these programs. While these pro- Space; Calvert; Putnam; Hodes; Bar- make our nation healthier and safer. The Sen- grams work, there are millions of low-in- row; Meeks; Stupak; Meek; Etheridge; ate is already working on their bill. Unfortu- come children who don’t have access to these Price (NC); Salazar; Schrader; Boren; benefits, and more can be done to ensure Murphy (CT); Davis (AL); Visclosky; nately, their bill is less than half of the Presi- that these benefits are of high quality, based Lipinski, Sherman; Berry; Costello; dent’s request. We cannot afford to ignore our on current nutrition science. This Congress Maffei; Murphy (NY); Deutch; Inslee; children’s health. A majority of the House be- can continue to improve on their success; however, improving these programs will re- Ruppersberger; Matheson; McIntyre; lieves we need a Child Nutrition Reauthoriza- Kissell; Sanchez, Loretta; Schmidt; tion bill that meets President Obama’s re- quire a significant investment. While we recognize the size of the federal Driehaus; Wilson (OH); Dicks; Himes. quest. deficit and the need to reduce this deficit, we I include in the RECORD the bipartisan letter support proper funding—offset and paid for— signed by 219 Members of Congress and the that allows for critical improvements in ac- [From The Washington Post, Apr. 30, 2010] Op-Ed from the Washington Post authored by cess to and the quality of the Child Nutrition THE LATEST NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT: Generals Shalikashvili and Shelton. Programs. Chairman Miller is working on a OBESITY MAY 6, 2010. reauthorization that will properly marry im- proved access and nutrition quality to ad- (By John M. Shalikashvili and Hugh Hon. NANCY PELOSI, dress the priorities outlined in the Presi- Shelton) Speaker, House of Representatives, The Capitol, dent’s budget. We are committed to working Washington, DC. Are we becoming a nation too fat to defend with him on this effort. To support this ef- DEAR SPEAKER PELOSI, We are writing in ourselves? strong support of reauthorizing Child Nutri- fort, we are seeking your assistance in iden- tion Programs this year. Under your leader- tifying offsets to properly fund these im- It seems incredible, but these are the facts: provements. As of 2005, at least 9 million young adults— ship, this Congress has committed to ad- Thank you for your attention to this mat- dressing critical economic and health chal- 27 percent of all Americans ages 17 to 24— ter and we look forward to working with you were too overweight to serve in the military, lenges of a generation. The reauthorization further on this important reauthorization. according to the Army’s analysis of national of the child nutrition programs is a crucial Sincerely, legislative component to this effort. Presi- McGovern; Emerson; Grijalva; Farr; data. And since then, these high numbers dent Obama has called for a historic invest- DeGette; Pallone; Stark; Richardson; have remained largely unchanged. ment in these programs in order to respond Snyder; Larsen; Carson; McCollum; Data from the Centers for Disease Control to two of the greatest child health chal- Pingree; Hastings (FL); Baldwin; and Prevention show obesity rates among lenges of our time, hunger and poor nutri- Capps; Polis; Clarke; Fudge; Carnahan; tion. Respectfully, we request your leader- young adults increasing dramatically na- Kaptur; Welch; Capuano; Maloney; ship in assisting in the identification of pos- tionwide. From 1998 to 2008, the number of Ellison; Moore (WI); Loebsack; sible offsets to support President Obama’s states reporting that 40 percent or more of Delauro; Olver; Norton; McDermott; call for new investments to properly fund young adults are overweight or obese has these important anti-hunger and nutrition Holt; Filner; Frank (MA); Green, Al; risen from one to 39. Lynch; McCarthy (NY); Matsui; Gray- programs. While other significant factors can keep President Obama included a $1 billion in- son; Watson; Wu; our youth from joining the military—such as crease in funding for the Child Nutrition Kucinich; Doyle; Tonko; Chu; Tierney; Programs in both his FY 2010 and FY 2011 Pastor; DeFazio; Waters; Woolsey; lacking a high school diploma or having a se- budgets. This request clearly highlights the Boccieri; Shea-Porter; Wasserman rious criminal record—being overweight or importance of and the need to invest in these Schultz; Hinchey; Schakowsky; Foster; obese has become the leading medical reason programs. Nearly one-quarter of children Blumenauer; Quigley; Rush; Towns; recruits are rejected for military service. today live in households that don’t always Clay; Since 1995, the proportion of potential re- have enough food to feed the family. Fur- Lee (CA); Hinojosa; Serrano; Brady (PA); cruits who failed their physical exams be- thermore, families that struggle to have Bordallo; Waxman; Michaud; cause of weight issues has increased nearly enough food often also struggle to access McMahon; Jackson, Jr.; Hill; Doggett; 70 percent, according to data reported by the healthful food. Poverty exacerbates chil- Sires; Oberstar; Titus; Tsongas; Mar- Division of Preventive Medicine at the Wal- dren’s risk of unhealthy weight gain, but key (MA); Neal; Sablan; Castor; Bishop ter Reed Army Institute of Research. poor nutrition affects children’s health and (GA); well-being across all income levels. Today, Gonzalez; Courtney; Wolf; Boucher; Sut- We consider this problem so serious from a nearly one-third of all children are over- ton; Cuellar; Braley; Souder; national security perspective that we have weight or obese. These challenges to chil- Faleomavaega; Dahlkemper; Brown, joined more than 130 other retired generals, dren’s health are present in every district Corrine; Ortiz; Reyes; Bishop (NY); admirals and senior military leaders in call- across the country and are recognized as Israel; Scott (VA); Conyers; Sa´ nchez, ing on Congress to pass new child nutrition critical public health concerns. Linda; Van Hollen; Pierluisi; legislation. ∑ This ‘‘bullet’’ symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. VerDate Mar 15 2010 05:05 May 07, 2010 Jkt 089060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 0626 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\A06MY8.001 E06MYPT1 SMARTINEZ on DSKB9S0YB1PROD with REMARKS E770 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — Extensions of Remarks May 6, 2010 What children eat and drink during school Upon receiving his MS in Education from Mrs. Perry began her college coaching ca- hours constitutes as much as 40 percent of Southern Connecticut State College, Hank reer as head women’s basketball