Rep. James P. McGovern Calls for Investing Additional Resources in Anti-Hunger Programs

The following is taken directly from FRAC News Digest,Issue 14, April 2, 2007

(House Congressional Record of March 28, 2007, frwebgate1.access.gpo.gov, March 28, 2007)

“The decision to tolerate hunger in America has serious costs for us as a nation,” stated Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass., in his remarks in support of the Rule for the Consideration of H. Con. Res. 99, concurrent the Budget Resolution for FY2008. “This Budget Resolution – by providing a $20 billion reserve fund for the Farm Bill and by rejecting the President’s arbitrary eligibility cuts to Food Stamps and the elimination of the Commodity Supplemental Food Program – not only makes a strong statement on the need to combat hunger in America, it actually takes concrete steps to do so,” said McGovern. “Food Stamp benefits … are too meager to solve the problem, he said, and are missing four in every ten eligible people. McGovern called it “unconscionable” that the programs proven to combat hunger are “continually under attack.” He urged lawmakers to invest additional resources in the next Farm Bill, needed to improve anti-hunger programs. “It should improve the food stamp benefit, open eligibility to vulnerable and underserved groups, and adequately fund and fully utilize USDA resources to support emergency food assistance and other commodity assistance programs that serve the needy.”

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?position=all&page=H3194&dbname=2007_record