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Pelosi Remarks at Press Event to Protect SNAP

May 8, 2018

Contact: Ashley Etienne/Henry Connelly, 202-226-7616

Washington, D.C. —Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi joined individuals from the Center for American Progress, MomsRising and Food Research Action Center for a press event to protect SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program]. Below are the Leader's remarks:

Leader Pelosi. Thank you very much, Ben [Wikler]. Thank you for your kind words. I thought that even though Jack couldn't speak, that he was very eloquent when he was up here. He did a great job. The message is what is important and what is important are our children, their future and there should be no doubt about whether or not they will be able to eat.

Sandy [Waters], thank you. You told the story that makes you wonder, how could these people ignore that? Thank you for being such a good daughter to your parents and telling a story of true commitment to family values.

What could they be thinking? What could they be thinking?

Well, since [Congresswoman] Barbara Lee and [Congresswoman] Gwen Moore, my colleagues, and Sandy told the story so well about why they should keep their hands off SNAP, I'll tell you what I did yesterday.

Yesterday, I was on a farm in Iowa to listen to farmers who told me what the problems were with the farm bill – how it reduced investments in agriculture research, reduce investment in rural development and also how wrong it was when it came to the nutrition part of the bill.

I recognize that many people in farm country benefit from the nutrition package directly because it buys food. But also, because many are veterans, many are those who work full-time but still cannot afford to put food on the table because of unfairness in our system and also because they are just starting off.

So it's about seniors, it's about children, it's about veterans, it's about individuals with disabilities, it's about others.

We believe in more initiative associated with food stamps and SNAP in some respects but this is not what they are proposing. They are proposing a bureaucratic conspiracy to undermine the decency of America by not honoring the Gospel: ‘When I was hungry, you fed me.'

This is not about giving people something they shouldn't have. It's about honoring the dignity of our country and who we are. So, this is about values and when we talk about values we have to understand that there are certain people in Washington who do not share our values.

A budget is supposed to be a statement of our values. What's important to us as a nation is where we should make our investments. Instead, we give tax breaks where 83 percent of the benefits go to the top 1 percent, a trillion and a half plus interest, over two trillion dollars taking us deeper into debt and then say, ‘Well, we are going into debt so we are going to make cuts. A trillion dollars from Medicaid. A half a trillion from Medicare.' The President's budget – over two billion dollars from SNAP. Two hundred billion dollars from education.

What could they be thinking? Who are these people? To take that money away from feeding people. As Congresswoman Moore said earlier, for every dollar spent for the hungry, it returns money to farmers and brings money back to our economy. It is a stimulus.

Here we are, a day after the First Lady said that children are our priority and we have to do our best for our children. On that very same day, on that very same day, they announced they would take $7 billion out of CHIP, the Children's Health Insurance Program.

[Chants of ‘Shame!']

On that very same day, they said they would separate children from their parents coming over the border. And this is the same day? They at least have to get their act together on the same day. But it is all about the PR and not about the personal impact of what they are putting forth.

So when we talk about them keeping their hands off SNAP, we are really doing a service to our country to correct their inhumanity. This is all wrong. If you listen to the debate on the Floor of the House, you won't even believe. They go on the Floor, these very religious people and say, ‘God put people on earth to work. If you work, you eat.'

Oh, really? If you are a child, a senior, a person with disabilities, if you're sick, caring for the sick, even if you're somebody who is between jobs, what is that supposed to be about?

So, again, my colleagues [Congresswoman] Barbara [Lee] and [Congresswoman] Gwen [Moore] – aren't they wonderful? They said that the people who we care about are invisible to them. Well, they're not invisible to us or what our purpose is. To meet the needs of the American people. Whether it's in the biblical sense like the Gospel of Matthew or in decency sense in terms of our values, whatever it happens to be.

We know we have to make the fight. When we fight, we win. When we fight, we win. Hands off SNAP! Let's thank CAP. Thank you, Ben. We will defeat this farm bill because we must.

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