House Democrats held a Steering Committee meeting on Tuesday on the importance of SNAP.
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NewsTranscript
00:00:00Good afternoon. I call this meeting of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee
00:00:07to order. I am co-chair Nanette Barragan, and I'm proud to represent California's 44th
00:00:13District in the United States House of Representatives. Two weeks ago, the Steering and Policy Committee
00:00:18held a hearing to explore how the House Republican budget, which is proudly endorsed by Donald
00:00:23Trump, threatens Medicaid and will take away health care from tens of millions of Americans.
00:00:29Sadly, Medicaid is not the only lifeline that House Republicans want to cut. Today,
00:00:35we are here to have an important conversation about SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
00:00:40Program, formerly known as Food Stamps. More than 40 million Americans, over 1 in 10 people
00:00:48in this country, rely on SNAP to get healthy food they need. In my district, over 122,000
00:00:56rely on SNAP and will go hungry without these benefits, including my mother. Donald Trump,
00:01:03Elon Musk, and House Republicans have made food assistance their next target. The House
00:01:09Republican budget cuts more than $200 billion from SNAP, which means kids, parents, seniors,
00:01:15and our veterans will starve. These SNAP cuts and Republican Medicaid cuts are intended
00:01:20to pay for huge new tax breaks to billionaire donors like Elon Musk. Our communities cannot
00:01:29afford this Republican scheme. Today, we will take a deeper dive into the importance of
00:01:37SNAP and how Democrats will fight back to save food assistance and keep America fed.
00:01:43We will discuss the future of SNAP and our fight to stop these extreme cuts. With that,
00:01:49I yield to our leader, Hakeem Jeffries, to begin today's hearing.
00:01:52Good afternoon, and thank you, Co-Chair Barragan, for your leadership, and I also want to thank
00:02:01Co-Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Co-Chair Robin Kelly for convening this incredibly
00:02:08important and timely hearing. Let me also thank Chef Caliclio, Stacey Dean, Kaitlin
00:02:17Yancey, Cindy Camp, Aaron Carrillo, who are all here to share their experience and their
00:02:26expertise with us in the Congress today. This hearing is about hunger in this country, nutritional
00:02:35assistance, and Republican betrayal of the American people. After promising to lower
00:02:44the high cost of living for everyday Americans, Donald Trump and House Republicans are doing the
00:02:51exact opposite. Costs aren't going down, they are going up. Last month, House Republicans passed
00:03:00the initial stages of their budget, which included the most significant cut to nutritional assistance
00:03:10in American history, all to give trillions of dollars of tax breaks to MAGA billionaires like
00:03:20Elon Musk. Without the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program as it currently exists,
00:03:28approximately 42 million Americans could go hungry, including nearly 17 million children
00:03:395 million seniors, and over a million veterans. This reckless Republican budget scheme will hurt
00:03:49vulnerable families and decimate farm country. It will hurt food processors, manufacturers, and mom
00:04:00and pop grocery stores who provide critical support to urban communities, rural communities, and to the
00:04:10heartland of this nation. The Republican snap cuts will be devastating, hurting children, families,
00:04:20seniors, people with disabilities, veterans, and weaken our social safety net and economy as a
00:04:28whole. Congressional Democrats are partnering with everyday Americans and advocates all across
00:04:36the country to forcefully push back against this extreme agenda. We're going to stand on the side
00:04:43of the American people. We're going to stand on the side of SNAP today. We're going to stand on
00:04:48the side of SNAP tomorrow. We're going to stand on the side of nutritional assistance for everyday
00:04:55Americans until we eradicate hunger in this country once and for all. As we continue this
00:05:06hearing, we'll now hear a short video that illustrates the importance of the Supplemental
00:05:14Nutritional Assistance Program and other vital nutritional programs in our great country.
00:05:22House Republicans want to cut $230 billion from food assistance programs because their
00:05:28billionaire friends have caviar taste. 17 million kids, 5 million seniors, and 1.2 million veterans
00:05:36could be left without food. For the 42 million Americans on SNAP, monthly grocery bills will
00:05:41rise by $260 a month for a family of four, and the economy would shrink by $230 billion,
00:05:48costing farmers and ranchers billions while destroying more than 218,000 jobs.
00:05:53Don't let them take the food off your plate. Save food assistance and feed America.
00:06:06We'll now hear from Ranking Member Angie Craig.
00:06:12Thank you so much, Madam Co-Chair, and thank you, Leader Jeffries, for your remarks.
00:06:18We are holding this hearing at an inflection point in America.
00:06:23People across this nation are concerned about the direction we're headed as a country.
00:06:29Costs remain high across the board, from food to housing to health care. In such an evenly
00:06:36divided Congress, where America elected nearly equal parts to this body, the right thing to
00:06:43do would be to reach across the aisle and work on a bipartisan basis. A bipartisan basis that
00:06:50creates opportunity and lowers costs for the American people. But that's not what my Republican
00:06:57colleagues are doing here in this Congress. Instead, House Republicans are proposing we
00:07:04shrink the food economy by cutting the SNAP program by $230 billion. All to pay for a program
00:07:14of tax breaks for billionaires in this country is absolutely shameful, taking food from hungry
00:07:22children, seniors, and veterans, and farm income away from our nation's family farmers.
00:07:30Right now, farmers are dealing with the high cost of doing business. Instead of working together in a
00:07:36bipartisan way to drive down input costs and protect farmers' bottom lines, this administration
00:07:43is threatening tariffs that reduce demand for American-grown food, increase the cost of inputs
00:07:50for farmers, and as a result, raise grocery prices at the grocery store.
00:07:57At a time when people across the country are struggling with the high cost of groceries,
00:08:01SNAP helps American families keep food on the table. These proposed benefit cuts would increase
00:08:08food costs for a typical SNAP household by $175 a month. A family of four, let me repeat this,
00:08:18would see their costs increase by $175 a month, or about $2,100 a year.
00:08:27Not only does SNAP reduce childhood poverty, lower health care costs, and improve education
00:08:33outcomes, but this program helps drive local economies. Every $1 invested in SNAP generates
00:08:41$1.50 in economic activity. Because when you spend a dollar on food, you aren't just paying
00:08:48for the food your local farmer grew in your shopping cart. You're helping pay for the
00:08:52salary of the grocery store clerk who stocked the shelves, the trucker who delivered the food
00:08:58to the grocery store, and the manufacturer who made its packaging. This cut would destroy over
00:09:05200,000 jobs, and grocery stores would close in our communities, particularly our rural communities.
00:09:12When did it become good policy to sow chaos in our economy, slow economic growth,
00:09:18and take opportunities away from American businesses? Who does that help? Not our farmers,
00:09:24who will see net income drop by $23 billion as a result of this proposal.
00:09:31Let me just repeat that. Our family farmers are going to be harmed, as well as hungry children,
00:09:38seniors, and veterans. Not shops on Main Streets are going to be helped. Not struggling families
00:09:45are going to be helped. None of that is going to happen under this Republican plan.
00:09:49Let me be clear, though, about what we're talking about here. $2 a meal, over six bucks a day,
00:09:55just over six bucks a day. That's the average SNAP benefit for the American in need. My
00:10:02grandfather was a farm foreman, and in farm country, neighbors help neighbors. Life is
00:10:07tough enough as it is. We shouldn't be forcing American families to go through it on an empty
00:10:11stomach. I want to thank our witnesses for being here today. I think the American people need to
00:10:17hear the true cost of giving tax breaks to billionaires, because the choice before Congress
00:10:22is not if we should save $230 billion or not. The choice is whether to make America hungrier and
00:10:30poorer so a handful of billionaires can get richer while the middle class continues to get screwed in
00:10:36this country. We will fight every step of the way to stop this bill. I've spoken about the impact
00:10:44these cuts will have on jobs throughout the supply chain and on farm country, but who better to tell
00:10:49the story of the importance of SNAP for farmers than farmers themselves? Let's listen, and I yield back.
00:10:56SNAP benefits not only help individuals and families, but they also support local farmers
00:11:02and grocers and businesses. SNAP is incredibly important to our market. It really supports our
00:11:08local farmers and producers. We rely on SNAP as part of our sales revenue each year. SNAP dollars
00:11:15do make big difference of our sales. A significant portion of my farm's annual revenue comes from SNAP
00:11:20sales. SNAP is really important in my community for farmers, for farmers markets, and for co-ops.
00:11:27It helps us reach customers that we wouldn't normally be able to reach. Members of my community
00:11:32can access local nutritious cheese and milk because they accept SNAP. Every dollar spent
00:11:38in SNAP generates an economic activity within our communities. So we need to protect these
00:11:44benefits. They support local farmers and producers, and they support local people. We strongly urge
00:11:49Congress to fully fund these nutrition benefit programs, keep this type of revenue going for
00:11:54farmers. Please continue to support SNAP benefits. We want this program to stay. Continuing SNAP
00:12:01benefits is an investment in the future. Everybody has the right to eat high quality, good quality,
00:12:09nutrient-dense food.
00:12:11I want to start by thanking our leader, Hakeem Jeffries, and our Steering and Policy Committee
00:12:17co-chairs, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Nanette Barragan, and Robin Kelly, for bringing this
00:12:23important hearing forward. As we know, and what we're here to discuss, is that SNAP is a lifeline
00:12:33for millions of our neighbors, for moms, dads, kids, seniors, veterans. And as we have just heard
00:12:40in that video, it is also a pillar of our entire food economy. Our first witness today brings deep
00:12:50insight into the business of feeding our country. He knows the challenges of feeding our country,
00:12:56deep insight into the business of feeding our country. He knows the challenges we face,
00:13:04and plus, he knows the importance of making really great food. Tom Colicchio is the son
00:13:13of a union organizer and a school lunchroom worker. Raised in a home where dinner was shared
00:13:20together every night, Tom went on to become a world-renowned chef to own award-winning restaurants
00:13:28and a fierce advocate for food security. From flipping burgers as a teenager in Elizabeth,
00:13:35New Jersey, to running New York's top restaurants and serving as the head judge on Top Chef,
00:13:43Tom embodies the American dream. And that's what we're really here in defense of today.
00:13:51And Tom is fighting for everyone's right to have a fair shot at their own American dream.
00:13:59And that starts with meeting our most basic human need, the need for food. Tom has a lifelong
00:14:06appreciation for the importance of food and a fundamental understanding that hunger in this
00:14:14country is a policy choice. The GOP budget guts food assistance for parents who are already
00:14:24struggling to fill lunch boxes in the morning and to put food on the table at night. They are taking
00:14:32meals from our seniors and our babies, all to hand tax cuts and corrupt contracts to billionaire donors.
00:14:42Republicans campaigned on lowering the cost of groceries and now they're slashing the very
00:14:49services that keep those costs down. It is shameful and it makes this fight all the more urgent.
00:14:57Chef, we thank you for being here today. We thank you for a commitment to a hunger-free future
00:15:04that our children deserve and you are recognized.
00:15:08Thank you, Congresswoman Clark. And thank you all for inviting me here today.
00:15:13So yes, I am a chef. I own restaurants in New York and Las Vegas. And as a chef for about 40 years
00:15:19in New York City, often we were called upon to help raise money for various organizations. And
00:15:25I think because I feed people who can afford it and I really believe that food should be
00:15:30accessible and affordable for all, I tend to gravitate towards those organizations that helped
00:15:36with hunger issues. Organizations like Share Our Strength, No Kid Hungry, City Harvest, New York
00:15:42City Food Bank, God's Love We Deliver, Meals on Wheels. And during that time, I thought I knew a
00:15:49bit about hunger. But then about 15 years ago, my wife, and I think you left this out of the
00:15:57introduction, Congresswoman Clark, my wife and I helped produce a film. She directed a film
00:16:03called Place the Table. And that film illustrated hunger in America. And we know that in some of
00:16:15the research that we started doing, we found out very quickly that people are hungry in this
00:16:20country, not because of drought, not because of war, not because of famine. They're hungry in
00:16:25this country because we don't have the political will to make sure people don't go hungry. And
00:16:31those words were not my words. Those were Congressman McGovern's words. He was in the film.
00:16:38So soon after the film, oh, there was also, there was a piece of media in 1968 that was on CBS
00:16:46called Hunger in America. And that brought hunger directly into the living rooms of the American
00:16:51public. Soon after that, Senators Dole and McGovern got together, modernized the food stamp
00:16:57program, turned it into SNAP, modernized the school lunch program, and we pretty much ended
00:17:03hunger in this country until the 80s. We know what happened in the 80s. Everything changed.
00:17:08It all became about, you know, government doesn't have that role anymore, and leave this up to
00:17:14churches, leave this up to charity. Didn't work. We saw hunger just increase overnight.
00:17:22So soon after the film, I co-founded an organization called Food Policy Action.
00:17:26We actually created a scorecard and members of the Food Policy Action Committee,
00:17:31and members in Congress on how they voted around food issues, hunger, but also farming,
00:17:36clean water, and things like that. And frequently I was up on the hill meeting members and trying
00:17:43just to get them to see things our way, where we all see things. Most of those meetings I had
00:17:49were with Republicans. And back then they were receptive. And they were receptive to
00:17:55the idea where healthcare was impacted by hunger, all right? Nutrition outcomes impact healthcare.
00:18:02If we want to bring the cost of healthcare down, we want to make sure people have nutritious food.
00:18:06Talked about national security, and at the time it was about 25 percent of the recruits
00:18:11that showed up to fight for armed services would wash out because they weren't fit to fight.
00:18:16So it's a national security issue. That definitely resonated. We talked about
00:18:21business, the effect that it had on local businesses, especially farmers.
00:18:25Talked about how $1 created $1.50 in economic activity. And these were all, at the time,
00:18:31very, very receptive to these ideas. It's all changed. But what I'd like to say to my friends
00:18:38here on the Democratic Party, we've always focused on protecting SNAP.
00:18:46My suggestion is if Republicans cut SNAP by $230 billion, when we take this house back,
00:18:52and we will take this house back, we don't go back to $230. Let's go back to $330. Let's increase
00:18:58this. Let's make sure more people can eat. Because when we see inflation rise, food stamps don't
00:19:04cover it anymore. SNAP doesn't cover it because it doesn't rise with inflation. So we need to
00:19:08increase this. We need to increase it for all the reasons that we know it works.
00:19:12This keeps people healthy. It keeps people active. You know, the idea that there's some kid out
00:19:18there that is going to show up in school hungry, and they're not going to learn. They're not going
00:19:21to achieve their goals, their capacity. And that kid out there may do something great.
00:19:28And we're letting that just kind of go by. We're not looking at the human sort of effect that
00:19:34hunger has. The effect that it has on parents when they struggle to feed their children.
00:19:39And we also know that these benefits don't go to people who are lazy and not working.
00:19:45The majority of people who receive SNAP benefits have at least one member of the family working.
00:19:52So let's be crystal clear. The proposed cuts to Social Security, Medicaid, and SNAP are for one
00:19:58purpose and one purpose only. And that is to give massive tax cuts to corporations and businesses
00:20:03are for one purpose and one purpose only. And that is to give massive tax cuts to corporations
00:20:08and the very wealthy. But let's for a second entertain the idea of reducing SNAP.
00:20:16But not the benefits. We're the most wealthy country in the history of this world,
00:20:21and we should aspire to having fewer people on public assistance.
00:20:26But attacking benefits won't cut it. Food prices are up. Housing costs are through the roof.
00:20:32Insurance is up. The price of a dozen eggs is equal to an hour of labor.
00:20:37Cutting benefits is just another form of cruelty. So yes, I agree, our goal should be to have fewer
00:20:44people on SNAP. But allow me the audacity to make a suggestion. I want fewer people on SNAP. Well,
00:20:50if we want to do that, then businesses need to pay a living wage. $7.25 an hour minimum wage
00:20:57all but guarantees the need for public assistance.
00:21:02Let's take it a step further. If corporations will not pay a living wage to their employees,
00:21:06and they have to rely on SNAP to survive, then they should have a tax levied against them.
00:21:13As a party, we cannot wait for the Orson window to shift. We must fling it wide open.
00:21:17We need to engage directly with the American public. You know, during the pandemic,
00:21:21I think we all saw the news clips of lines of cars lined up for hours. Well,
00:21:26if you look closely at those videos, there were BMWs there, there were Mercedes there,
00:21:31there were even some Teslas there, right? Now, these people never, never thought they
00:21:36would find themselves in an hour-long line to feed their families. So my hope was that we would have
00:21:43a more empathetic country, a country where people realize that many of us are just a circumstance
00:21:48away from needing assistance. And I agree that we should aspire to make America healthy again.
00:21:56But by cutting vital nutrition programs for children, seniors, people with disabilities,
00:22:01and veterans, unfortunately, will only make us less healthy. It will destroy farming communities,
00:22:06it will hurt businesses, it will not strengthen our national security,
00:22:09it will not improve educational outcomes, and it will not secure our future. Thank you.
00:22:27We recognize a ranking member of Governor McGovern.
00:22:30Thank you very much. And thank you, Tom, for your testimony and for your tireless advocacy to end
00:22:34hunger. You know, as you pointed out, America is the richest country in the history of the world.
00:22:39And yet we have 47 million of our fellow citizens who are hungry. That's a scandal. No one in our
00:22:45country should go without food. Food ought to be viewed as a fundamental human right.
00:22:49But fighting hunger isn't just the right thing to do.
00:22:52Is it just the right thing to do? It's the smart thing to do. Hunger costs us dearly.
00:22:58In lost productivity at work, in kids who struggle to learn, in seniors who end up in the emergency
00:23:03room, hunger hurts us all. And the benefit, as was pointed out, is a little over, on average,
00:23:08two dollars per person per meal. And the Republicans want to cut that? What a rotten
00:23:13thing to do. When's the last time Elon Musk or Donald Trump have been at a grocery store?
00:23:18They probably think corn is grown in a vending machine. But I'm proud to welcome our next
00:23:23witness, Stacey Dean, a true champion in the fight to make sure that everyone in this country
00:23:29has enough to eat. Stacey is executive director of the Global Food Institute at George Washington
00:23:34University, where she focuses on how healthy food can improve lives and protect the planet.
00:23:39She previously served as deputy undersecretary at USDA's Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services,
00:23:46where she expanded access to nutritious food for millions of Americans. She's also a fierce
00:23:52advocate for our farms and for our farmers. And before her time at USDA, she led food
00:23:57assistance policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonprofit, nonpartisan
00:24:02research group. Stacey knows exactly how important SNAP is and how Republican cuts would hurt kids,
00:24:10families, seniors and people with disabilities. Thank you so much for being here today.
00:24:16And you are recognized. Thank you, Congressman McGovern, for that really warm introduction
00:24:21and for the opportunity to be with you here today to talk about SNAP. SNAP is our nation's most
00:24:28effective and important tool to help families meet their basic food needs and to fight hunger.
00:24:33SNAP helped an average of 41 million people to buy groceries in 2024. That's about one in eight
00:24:39Americans or one in five children in this country. Participants use their benefits, which we've all
00:24:44remarked is two dollars per person per meal, to buy groceries at more than 250,000 food retail
00:24:52outlets. And while SNAP's fundamental purpose is to help families, older Americans, individuals
00:24:58with disabilities to afford a basic healthy diet, it also promotes other goals. SNAP protects
00:25:05participants from hardship and hunger. Studies show that SNAP participation reduces food insecurity
00:25:10by as much as 30 percent and even more amongst children. It's a powerful anti-poverty tool.
00:25:17By providing resources for food, it frees up families' income for other purposes like rent
00:25:23and utilities or child care. And boosting monthly income means fighting reduces poverty.
00:25:30SNAP is linked to improve outcomes for education, economic security, and self-sufficiency.
00:25:36It's also associated with improved health outcomes and lower medical costs.
00:25:41It helps family afford healthier foods and is linked to better health outcomes over the long
00:25:47run when individuals received it as children. SNAP's a crucial support for workers and I think
00:25:52this is worth spending a minute on. Most SNAP participants who can work do, but many of the
00:25:58jobs common among SNAP participants are service jobs or sales jobs, often pay very low wages and
00:26:04don't offer regular hours at work. So SNAP helps to fill in the gaps for workers with low pay or
00:26:11inconsistent pay because of hours. And it also helps families to afford food when they're in
00:26:16between jobs and looking for work. Now I'm a really big fan of SNAP as you can probably tell,
00:26:21but even I know there are ways to improve it, much like Mr. Colicchio. Top amongst my list
00:26:27would be equipping USDA with the tools it needs to stop criminals from stealing SNAP benefits from
00:26:33clients' EPT cards, as well as to restore the lapsed authority for states to replace stolen
00:26:39benefits. Something I know many of you championed. I want to close with just a reflection on the
00:26:46House-passed budget resolution and its potential implications for SNAP. The resolution, as you all
00:26:52speakers have already noted, calls for $230 billion in cuts in SNAP over the next 10 years.
00:26:58That's more than a 20% cut in projected spending. And it's worth noting that that SNAP cut,
00:27:05the SNAP cuts are twice the size of the terrible Medicaid-proposed cuts when taken as a, considered
00:27:11as a share of the underlying program spending. Those cuts are also concerning, but I just,
00:27:17deeply concerning, but I wanted to call out the scale of the SNAP cuts. It's not possible to
00:27:24achieve this level of cut without some combination of cutting food benefits, which are already quite
00:27:30modest, cutting eligibility from lots of people, millions, or some combination of both. SNAP cuts
00:27:38of this magnitude would clearly have a dramatic impact on millions of struggling Americans who
00:27:43count on this program every day to put food on the table, as well as for the grocers, farmers,
00:27:48food manufacturers, and all of those individuals in the food supply chain who serve them.
00:27:56I'll just stop there and say I really look forward to the opportunity to take your questions.
00:28:00We'll now move to questions, and I recognize Ranking Member DeLauro.
00:28:15I have a loud voice. Okay. So it's wonderful to see you and wonderful to have worked with you
00:28:21over, over, over the years. But most of all, not, not only your testimony, but your fierce
00:28:27and persistent advocacy, advocacy for the middle class, for the working class, for the vulnerable.
00:28:34And as you know, they are all struggling to pay their bills. President Trump's cost of living
00:28:39crisis gets worse. So many children hungry as families struggle to pay, pay their rent and to
00:28:46put food on the table. I would just say this, if we wanted to decrease the hunger rate in this
00:28:52country, let's go back to the child tax credit, which all we already did when it was in effect,
00:28:57reduce of hunger by about 25% in this country. The United States has an abundance of food,
00:29:04no shortage, and no child, no one should go to, should be hungry in the United States of America.
00:29:12No one. We have the food. Elon Musk, President Trump are putting the programs that help lower
00:29:17income Americans on the chopping block in order to pay for, yes, a huge tax break for billionaires
00:29:22and corporations. The consequences of their attacks on food stamps, our nation's most effective
00:29:28anti-hunger program are as simple as they are dire. Our neighbors and our children will go hungry.
00:29:35And I've stopped mentioning the word food security. It's about people in this nation going hungry.
00:29:40That is the issue. Stacey, let me start with a question for you. One proposal that the House
00:29:44Republicans are considering is forcing states to pay for a portion of food stamp benefits.
00:29:51How would that impact state budgets and how might it affect the people who count on
00:29:55food assistance? Thank you, Congresswoman. While there are no details available at this point about
00:30:01the reported concept of a state match, I think a state match requirement would destroy SNAP's
00:30:07powerful and effective structure. For more than 50 years, we have viewed hunger as a national
00:30:14problem that requires a national solution. And that's why SNAP benefits are paid entirely with
00:30:19federal funds, while states share in the administrative costs. And it's why SNAP is the
00:30:24most, after unemployment insurance, the most power counter cyclical tools during a downturn.
00:30:30Its benefits flow to where they're needed. States face balanced budget requirements. So if they are
00:30:36forced to put up funds in order to keep SNAP dollars flowing to their state, it will have to
00:30:40come from either raising taxes or cutting other benefits, goods and services, which is a terrible
00:30:48zero-sum game for them. Many would likely be unable to put up their share, which mean that they would
00:30:54draw down a smaller SNAP program. And of course, then the program would, when there are downturns
00:30:59and states are struggling with resources, they wouldn't be, the program would not expand and
00:31:04respond the way that it does in this very powerful way. So it's deeply concerning to me
00:31:10and that a match would be on the table. Yeah. And that's incredible because everything is being
00:31:16matched. We're dealing with education, with nutrition, and I don't know where their view
00:31:20is that states have the wherewithal to be able to address these issues.
00:31:25Currently, I believe there are 10 states, all Republican-led states that cut their summer
00:31:30feeding programs. I don't think they could be trusted. Amen. Amen. And now that you spoke up,
00:31:36Tom, let me ask the next question for you. A chef and a great chef, I might add, who has spent
00:31:42a large part of your life, as you pointed out, feeding people. That's what you do. Can you talk
00:31:47about the importance of having the access to nutritious food? What does that mean for someone's
00:31:52overall well-being? Right. Well, you know, the problem that we have in this country is that,
00:31:58you know, calories are cheap and nutrition is expensive. If you want to feed your family
00:32:02healthy food, it costs more than feeding them, you know, over-processed, you know,
00:32:07foods that are full of sugar and fat. And so this is why SNAP is so important, especially programs
00:32:13like the Double Bucks program, where you can go to a farmer's market and you get double your
00:32:18purchasing power. So if you spend $40, you get a coupon for another $40. And also the benefit,
00:32:22so the benefit of that is people eat healthier food because people want healthier food. They
00:32:26can't afford it. The other benefit of that is that money goes directly to farmers. It doesn't go to
00:32:32a large corporation. It goes directly to farmers. These are programs that need to be protected.
00:32:36Just one point, and then I will yield back. The fact is that people are always complaining about
00:32:42food stamp recipients of what they spend their money on. The allocation is so low that at the
00:32:48beginning of the month, you can buy eggs and milk and juice, et cetera. At the end of the month,
00:32:54because the money has run out, you are forced to purchase soda and chips, et cetera, which are
00:33:00empty calories for people. So we need to understand that people want to feed their
00:33:05kids and they want to feed them nutritious food. Thank you both very, very much for your
00:33:09unbelievable work in this area. Thank you. Yield back. Thank you. I now recognize
00:33:14Representative Takuda. Thank you, Chair. Stacey, you and I have had many discussions on the
00:33:21inadequacy of the 30 food plan. And now House Republicans have targeted the most recent update
00:33:26to the 30 food plan, which determines SNAP benefits and helps to address the true costs
00:33:32of scarcity and accessibility of food in our rural communities like my hometown in Hawaii and small
00:33:38towns across this country. Targeting those updates would hurt these very communities that we love,
00:33:44where working families depend on SNAP to put food on their tables. By going after SNAP,
00:33:50House Republicans are setting up rural communities to starve. Can you explain for us how the USDA
00:33:58made the update to TFP and what reversing it would mean for people who rely on SNAP benefits
00:34:05to keep food on their tables? Thank you very much, Congresswoman. Good to see you.
00:34:09So the 2018 bipartisan farm bill directed USDA to do a reevaluation of the thrifty food plan.
00:34:18That had always been at the Secretary's discretion, but under that new law,
00:34:22USDA is now required to do it every five years. So Secretary Vilsack instructed us to move forward.
00:34:31The law was very clear. We had to consider four particular components, current food prices,
00:34:35what Americans typically eat, the latest dietary guidelines, and nutrients in foods.
00:34:41We undertook a robust data-driven analysis, a careful, considerate approach. We stayed
00:34:46very consistent with the way that the thrifty food plan had been analyzed in the past. The
00:34:52primary change that we made, there were a few assumptions made, was we used much better price
00:34:57data, the store scanner data, and so we had a much better understanding of what actual food prices
00:35:03were. As a result of that change, it resulted in the first permanent increase in SNAP benefits
00:35:10other than food inflation in 45 years. The first adjustment in 45 years. And as a result, even then
00:35:17it was fairly modest. SNAP benefits increased by an average of $36 per person per month, or $1.19
00:35:26per person per day, or 40 cents per meal. That was the impact in fiscal 22. We felt that these
00:35:34resources were much needed by households, and we're equipping them with the resources they
00:35:40need to purchase healthy foods and to support better nutrition. Thank you. It was definitely
00:35:4645 years too long, and we need to continue these TFP updates for sure. You know, Tom, you'd
00:35:52appreciate this. When I went home the other week, a kahu, kind of a religious leader, told me that
00:35:58when the opu, your belly, is full, there is life. And you, as a chef, you keep opus full, you keep bellies
00:36:06full with the fruits of our farmers' labor. And while we know that the SNAP benefits that we're
00:36:11talking about today can't be used directly at restaurants like yours, they are still a vital
00:36:16part of our food economy. So let's talk for a second. Can you tell me what taking out $230
00:36:22billion out of our food economy and ecosystem would mean for our producers, our farmers, our
00:36:28ranchers, processors, grocers, even our restauranteurs? What would that result in if we removed $230
00:36:35billion from our food economy? Sure. Well, if you multiply that by the $1.50, you'll see exactly
00:36:42how much money it takes out of the economy. And, you know, we're going to see farms go out of
00:36:48business. We're going to see grocery stores go out of business, especially the mom-and-pops.
00:36:51The big stores will survive it. We're going to see people go hungry. And what we're going to see
00:36:56once people start going hungry, we're going to see crime increase. We're going to see people get
00:37:01desperate when they're hungry and they can't feed their families. We'll see families break up because
00:37:04of it. And so, yes, the effect that it's going to have on the economies, and an economy in every
00:37:11single state, there are farms and small farms in every single state in this country. So it's not
00:37:16just going to hurt, you know, a handful of states. So farmers are going to have to do, you know,
00:37:22this is when you see farming communities start to go under, suicide rates go up. And so we're
00:37:28talking about some serious stuff here. It's not just a matter of bellies not being full. This is
00:37:34just decimating people's lifestyles and incomes. And, you know, people who farm, they typically
00:37:40don't farm because they think they're going to make a lot of money. They love the land. They
00:37:44want to be stewards of the land. And they want to produce nutritious foods that people can enjoy
00:37:48and people can thrive on. And if you cut that, what do we have as a country? I mean, we started
00:37:53out as an agrarian country. And I think that we still have that strong feeling. And if that goes,
00:38:00you know, talk about what really America is all about. You know, it's not about having farms go
00:38:07under. It's not about children going to bed hungry at night. It's not about parents having to skip a
00:38:12meal because they don't have enough to feed their kids. It's not about seniors who got to make
00:38:17decisions between medication or food. This is who we are. And this really isn't who we are.
00:38:27And it shouldn't be. And so it's not only about the economy. It's about really who we are as a
00:38:33people. Thank you, Tom. Cutting SNAP cuts our lifelines. Absolutely. Clearly, it truly cuts
00:38:40at what it means to be an American. So thank you both for your service and your testimony here.
00:38:44I yield back. Thank you, Congresswoman Takuda. And thank you to Tom and Stacey for your leadership,
00:38:51your advocacy, for your expertise, and for really shining an important spotlight on
00:38:56the devastating cuts to this food assistance and what that would really mean for Americans
00:39:02across the country. Because there are real people behind that number 40 million Americans who count
00:39:09on SNAP. People like Caitlin, Cindy, and Aaron, who we'll hear from shortly. They're our friends.
00:39:14They're our family members, sometimes even our co-workers. They're seniors, parents, people
00:39:19overcoming disabilities, and more than a million of our veterans. We want to bring their voices
00:39:24into the Capitol. So we asked people who have counted on SNAP to share their stories. And here's
00:39:30what they had to say. I want to talk to you about why food stamps are so important in our community.
00:39:35I know from experience the foundational difference that having food assistance
00:39:40in the form of SNAP or food stamps can make in the lives of struggling families.
00:39:45I received SNAP when I was rebuilding my life after leaving an abusive relationship.
00:39:50I'll never forget nine years ago, I had lost my job and benefits only to find out I was pregnant.
00:39:56I was on SNAP for about a year. And without SNAP, it would have been hard for me to sustain a
00:40:01healthy pregnancy. When I was younger, I received food stamps from my family. It's the only way we
00:40:07could get by. It was such a common thing in people that I knew that when a family didn't
00:40:12receive food stamps, I thought that was such a sign of wealth. The three years of SNAP benefits
00:40:17that I and my two children received enabled me to stop worrying about where our next meal was going
00:40:23to come from. We were food secure enough for me to focus on going to college as a way out of
00:40:30poverty. If SNAP benefits are cut, I won't be able to provide enough healthy and nutritious
00:40:37food for my children. SNAP was my lifeline. And for millions of families, it means the difference
00:40:44between life and death. We shouldn't cut SNAP. We should strengthen it. So I'm urging you,
00:40:50strengthen and preserve SNAP. Do not cut it. Please don't take it away from us. Because of this
00:40:56essential program, I was able to build a better future, not just for myself, but for my children.
00:41:02I'm calling on Congress to do the right thing to not cut this vital program
00:41:07that saves the lives of so many individuals in my community.
00:41:14Congressman Bishop, for an introduction.
00:41:17As that video showed, Americans from all walks of life count on SNAP to get the food they need.
00:41:26Three of the tens of millions of Americans who've counted on food assistance are with us today.
00:41:34Our first witness on this panel is Caitlin Yancey. Hailing from a proud military family,
00:41:42Caitlin served our country in the United States Navy as an aviation electronics technician.
00:41:49Today she's an advocate for fellow veterans at the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.
00:41:56She's also a hardworking mom who once counted on SNAP food benefits and the GI Bill to make sure
00:42:04that she could care for her kids. Many veterans and their families share Caitlin's story.
00:42:11There are over a million veterans who count on SNAP food benefits to put food on the table.
00:42:18Funding for food assistance should not be political. Americans should not go to bed hungry.
00:42:27Veterans should not have to worry that we will not have their backs
00:42:32in their time of need, like they had ours when they served. That's why House Democrats
00:42:40are fighting to protect food assistance and ensure that kids, parents, seniors, and veterans
00:42:47don't go hungry. Caitlin, thank you not only for your service to our country,
00:42:56but also your commitment to an entire generation of veterans and their families.
00:43:03Please share your experience with your fellow Americans. You're now recognized for that purpose.
00:43:10Thank you so much, Congressman Bishop. And thank you to all the members who sit here today for
00:43:14allowing me the opportunity to share how the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has
00:43:18impacted my family and myself. My name is Caitlin Yancey. I am a wife of a Navy veteran and the
00:43:26mother of four beautiful children and currently serve as the Director of Membership Programs
00:43:30at Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. From November 2017 to December 2018, my family
00:43:36utilized SNAP food benefits. I was a single mother, as my husband and I had separated,
00:43:41and he had moved away to Texas. My oldest was five and in the maintenance phase of his leukemia
00:43:46treatment, and I had a one-year-old daughter. I was in college at the time working to obtain
00:43:50my bachelor's degree with my GI Bill. My expenses were not extreme. I didn't have a car payment. I
00:43:55didn't buy expensive items. But given the cost of daycare, utilities, housing, food, driving back
00:44:00and forth to my son's chemo appointments, and other expenses I had to pay for to take care of
00:44:05my family, it all added up and was almost always more than was coming in. My GI Bill's basic
00:44:10allowance for housing and some support from my husband were the only income that I was receiving
00:44:14at the time, and it did not cover all the expenses that I had every month. I was forced to put things
00:44:18on a credit card many times so that I can ensure my family's needs were met. This credit card got
00:44:22harder and harder to pay off and eventually was no longer an option to use as I had maxed it out,
00:44:28putting my children and myself in a dangerous situation. My children are my everything. If I
00:44:33ever had to choose between giving myself a little or ensuring my children had full bellies,
00:44:38they would always come first. Growing up, there was a huge stigma attached to government assistance
00:44:43programs. So when I finally leveled with myself that it was time to seek assistance because I
00:44:47had to ensure that my son had healthy food while he finished treatment, I felt like a failure.
00:44:53Since then, I have been extremely humbled by how important it is for SNAP benefits to be
00:44:57available to those who are food insecure. Knowing my children were well fed made it possible for me
00:45:03to focus on my studies. Knowing having healthy food to eat myself made it easier for me to be a
00:45:08good mother. SNAP made it possible for food to not be a stress on my life. Without this assistance,
00:45:14I would have had to quit school and I never would have walked in the doors of my university student
00:45:18veteran organization, which opened up the doors for what has now become a career in veteran advocacy.
00:45:24Following the military, I felt the well-known struggle of transition. I had no idea who I was
00:45:29and I always felt out of place. It wasn't until I found our school's veteran program that I felt
00:45:34like I belonged. It was like coming up for fresh air after being held underwater. I dove right in
00:45:40and almost immediately became the secretary of our chapter and then president the following year.
00:45:45This set me on a path to finding IVA and getting started on their policy and advocacy team
00:45:49in August of 2019. Since then, I have testified over the House Veteran Affairs Committee several
00:45:54times, participated in countless meetings with congressional staffers and members of the House
00:45:59and Senate, and led teams of other IVA members on the Hill to tell their own stories and enact
00:46:05real change for the veteran community. According to Feeding America, one in nine veterans is food
00:46:10insecure and 1.2 million low-income veterans utilize SNAP. In IVA's 2022 survey, 21 percent
00:46:17of our members had difficulty covering basic necessary expenses with their monthly income.
00:46:22It's programs like SNAP that bridge that gap and help to alleviate the stress of food insecurity
00:46:27when the amount coming in doesn't quite stretch as far as we think. This past month, IVA held
00:46:33its Cavalry Week where we bring members from all over the country and help them to tell their stories
00:46:38on Capitol Hill. It's an amazing program that has given me the opportunity to meet some of the most
00:46:43inspiring veterans. In addition to being a mother, advocating for veterans is what I was put on this
00:46:48earth to do. It fulfills that lack of purpose I felt when I drove out the front gate for the last
00:46:53time at NAS Oceana in 2014. It makes Airman Hetrick, my maiden name, proud to know that even
00:47:00though I was terrified joining the military and embarking on a journey that I didn't originally
00:47:04plan for, I now sit before members of our country's leadership telling my family's story
00:47:10in order to put a face to one of the programs that made sitting here possible. None of this would
00:47:15have happened had I dropped out of school when money was tight and gotten a job just to put food
00:47:20on the table. Unable to utilize the GI Bill benefit I got in return for service to my country,
00:47:25I am proud of who I have become and benefits like SNAP were a crucial part of helping me
00:47:29get to where I am today. Thank you. Congresswoman Hayes for an introduction.
00:47:42Thank you, Caitlin, for your service and for sharing your story with us. I want you to know
00:47:47that we are fighting for veterans like you to be able to put food on the table and support your
00:47:52family. You deserve it. It's the very least for your service to our country. It's been made clear
00:47:59today by the witnesses who have come before us that SNAP is a lifeline for people from all walks
00:48:05of life. People like our next witness, Cindy Camp. Cindy's a mother and a grandmother who lives in
00:48:12Baltimore. She cares full-time for her brother who lives with significant disabilities. After
00:48:18the pandemic, Cindy was forced off Medicaid and lost her access to the affordable health care
00:48:23she relied on. As the cost of basic necessities like food and energy went up, Cindy had to rely
00:48:31on SNAP benefits to ensure she could continue putting food on the table for herself and her
00:48:36loved ones. I spoke to Cindy briefly before this hearing and I said, is there anything that you want
00:48:42me to know? She said, I worked my whole life to get off of assistance to not have to turn back
00:48:52and rely on it again. I don't want to have to need public benefits. I know Cindy's story because it's
00:49:02my own story. Nobody wants to be on public benefits. If House Republicans succeed in cutting
00:49:09SNAP, caregivers like Cindy would lose the food assistance that helps them make ends meet and feed
00:49:15their families. We will not let that happen and we want everyone to hear Cindy's story
00:49:23and understand the impact that this has on people and families. Cindy, you're now recognized.
00:49:33Hello, everyone. My name is Cindy Camp and I live in Baltimore. I'm a mother, a grandmother, a family
00:49:42caregiver, and a proud member of Moms Rising. I apologize if I get emotional right now
00:49:51because these are just words, but this is what I live.
00:49:55For the past seven years, I've stepped up as a sandwich generation caregiver for my family.
00:50:01My brother, Leon Wallace, is disabled and he's homebound. He needs support with his daily needs.
00:50:07For a long time, my mother provided that care, but now she is nearly 90
00:50:11and needs care for herself, so I care for them both.
00:50:19And people are oftentimes saying that we should put them in a nursing home,
00:50:25but she's 89 and if we do, she won't make it. At the same time, my daughter is struggling with
00:50:33her mental health, so I'm also caring for my three grandkids, ages 7, 9, and 13.
00:50:42And I apologize, everybody. They are living with me while their mom seeks treatment
00:50:47and my grandkids are a blessing and I'm proud to step up for them.
00:50:51And I would like to thank you for this chance for sharing my story.
00:50:56My family will always come first. For a while, I couldn't work because of my family
00:51:01caregiving responsibilities. During that time, I relied on SNAP to buy groceries. Without SNAP,
00:51:06I don't know how I would survive. I can't even imagine it. I go to the market,
00:51:11and I just start sometimes because I'm trying to figure out what I can afford.
00:51:16If I ever tried, if I ever tried to grocery shop for three growing kids, you know it's expensive.
00:51:24If you've ever tried, you know it's expensive, especially now as cost continues to skyrocket.
00:51:31Making sure everyone in my household gets three meals a day is a huge challenge.
00:51:38I'm terrified for my family each time I read that Republicans are threatening to slash the SNAP
00:51:44benefits we rely on to put food on our table. I know how we would make, I don't know how we would
00:51:50make that happen. Sometimes I talk to my mom and she said that could never happen,
00:51:54they would never allow that. And I say mom, it's happening.
00:52:02SNAP is our saving grace. My daughter receives $875 a month in SNAP benefits
00:52:09for my grandkids. Without those funds, I have no idea how the kids will eat, period. We already
00:52:15don't make it through the month as it is. I'm already struggling to provide the fresh healthy
00:52:19foods. I know they need to grow and thrive. I haven't bought eggs in a very long time.
00:52:25We rely on cheap processed foods and lean food banks to help fill in the gaps.
00:52:31If Republicans succeed in cutting SNAP, that would be nothing short of a crisis for my family.
00:52:37That thought keeps me up at night. It's not just SNAP, they're not just threatening Medicaid and
00:52:43disability, which are critical for my brother and my mom. And the healthy lunches my grandkids eat
00:52:49at school, it breaks my heart to think any elected leaders would allow grandkids to go hungry so
00:52:55billionaires can get yet another tax break. Our kids' basic needs should be more important
00:53:04than whether Elon Musk can buy another private jet.
00:53:08It's frustrating when politicians push a narrative that those who need SNAPs are lazy and don't work.
00:53:14I've worked very hard, so many jobs, to put food on the table. So that hurts when I hear that. And
00:53:20I hear those statements that really, really hurts. That is out of touch with the reality of families
00:53:25like mine are facing. It hurts those of us who can't work, whether we are caring for family or
00:53:32dealing with health crisis. Cutting SNAP or adding more burdensome work requirements will
00:53:37cause enormous harm to the most vulnerable members of our society, including children and the elderly.
00:53:44It's hard enough to qualify for SNAP as it is. These cuts will take critical resources away
00:53:51when they're needed the most. I want to thank the committee for standing up for families like mine.
00:53:57We all need to speak out against these cruel cuts. SNAP is critical for our families
00:54:03and our economy. It must be protected. Thank you.
00:54:07Thank you, President Kassar, for an introduction.
00:54:10We're here today because House Republicans want to cut off food for families like yours,
00:54:19and that's so cruel. And what makes it even more cruel and corrupt is they want to cut off food
00:54:27for working families because they want to take that money to pay for tax breaks for voters.
00:54:34They want to steal the money that families use to afford to eat so they can give it out to people
00:54:40like Elon Musk for more correct government contracts and tax breaks. People watching at
00:54:47home need to know is that Elon Musk gets eight million dollars a day today in federal government
00:54:55contracts. But they want to cut the two dollars a meal that a working class American gets on SNAP
00:55:04to feed themselves. SNAP isn't just a lifeline for folks like you, Cindy. It's the difference
00:55:10between children going to bed hungry or not. Children make up more than 40 percent of the
00:55:15people receiving SNAP today. Right now, we have far too many billionaires in power who care more
00:55:21about buying their next jet more than whether people can put food on the table. Way too many
00:55:26ultra-rich people running the Republican Party who care more about buying their next yacht than they
00:55:32care about whether you can pay your utility bill. Way too many billionaires with their campaign
00:55:36contributions who care about their next trip to space more than they care about whether you can
00:55:41pay for the rent or the mortgage or medicine. Our next witness, Mr. Aaron Carrillo, is a native of
00:55:49El Paso, Texas, El Chuco, one of the greatest cities in this country that really just produces
00:55:55some of the best Americans. I'm just so proud that you are here. He's now a successful health care
00:56:01leader. But growing up, her family relied on SNAP to make sure kids were fed. If House Republicans
00:56:08get their way, then the kids growing up today, the Aarons growing up today, could go hungry so that
00:56:14big corporations and Republican mega donors can get more rich. Aaron, I really want to thank you
00:56:20for being here today, and you're recognized. Thank you, Congressman. Good afternoon. My name
00:56:27is Aaron Carrillo, and I am indeed from El Paso. Growing up in a Latino and Vietnamese household
00:56:35meant everything was about the numbers. Numbers was logic. Numbers was life.
00:56:40For me, that really just meant I counted a lot. See, by the time I was 18, we moved 21 times.
00:56:49Now, before you ask, no, we're not military. It was just following my mother and her hard work.
00:56:57Every move meant she made more, got to spend more time, and continued to grow, except for two moves.
00:57:09You see, my mom grew up with a lift-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps mentality,
00:57:15and as a child of two military parents, she definitely did that.
00:57:21She worked 80-hour weeks, running on only one guilty pleasure, a venti white chocolate mocha
00:57:28with two shots of espresso hold the whip every morning. She managed our schedules,
00:57:34taught us where we could help, and continued to make sure our home grew and was ran.
00:57:42To me, my mother was my superhero, like the two counterparts that I have at the table today.
00:57:51She was invincible in my 12-year-old mind, but every superhero has their kryptonite.
00:57:57My mom was constantly running on fumes, and yet she continued to work,
00:58:02even when she was sick, she continued to work,
00:58:07even when it led to surgery, she tried to continue to work, until she had nothing left to give,
00:58:14and slowly watched everything around us begin to disappear-her job, then our home,
00:58:21and then our car while we were sitting in the Walmart parking lot just trying to get groceries.
00:58:27We were left with nothing, and for the first time, that lift yourself by your bootstraps mentality,
00:58:34the straps broke. She had no choice, and she leaned on family in our community.
00:58:41While money ran out, my mom continued to look for a job. We moved again, just like normal,
00:58:49another move, except this time it was with family, this time it was a new school,
00:58:57this time we had nothing but each other.
00:59:03My mom found a job. It was 45 minutes away, but we didn't have a car. She made it work,
00:59:10but that meant 45 minutes every day that she drove, 45 minutes every day that she had to wait
00:59:16to see her children, 45 minutes every day that we had to pay for gas.
00:59:24She had no other option. The one thing that she never wanted to do, she had to do.
00:59:30We went to the SNAP office. At the time, we called it EBT, food stamps. We received $127 per month,
00:59:37we received $127 per month. It was a mixture of relief and shame on my mother's face,
00:59:46and the only solitude I could give her was the opportunity of me going through the cashier line
00:59:53and me handing the card. I learned at a young age to love numbers because it was my responsibility
01:00:02to make sure the dollars stretched. All it was was a year and a half. My mom did not want to stay
01:00:10on the program. She did not want to be what they quoted, a freeloader.
01:00:16We moved into a childhood home built in 1864. No heat, no AC, the electricity caught on fire
01:00:22from time to time, but it was a house with a roof over our heads. In eighth grade, I moved
01:00:28three different schools, and it was my mother that ensured that though I was advanced in one
01:00:35school and they didn't have the program at the other, I sat four foot seven in a class of 12th
01:00:41graders to ensure that I continued my education at the level I was at. She made sure I didn't
01:00:47go without in every way she possibly could. Now, me today. I work in healthcare. I love numbers.
01:00:59I'm a market manager of strategy, an executive position, and I'll toot my own horn, I'm pretty
01:01:04young for the position I have. I love planning and executing on five-year plans to expand care
01:01:12and services within my community that right now is suffering half the national average of
01:01:16physicians. We are the sixth largest population in Texas, the 22nd largest population in the United
01:01:22States, and people don't even know we have mountains in our city. Every day, I see how vital
01:01:28food assistance is for overall health. For kids to have the drive and hunger that everyone talks
01:01:36about every day, they can't be hungry. SNAP helps alleviate the burden of poverty and reduce food
01:01:45insecurity to prevent devastating health outcomes or mincing healthcare costs, and without SNAP,
01:01:51my path would be entirely different. One thing I didn't share was my mom was all about the things
01:01:58that were free when we could get them, and in Kansas at the time, I got an associate in precision
01:02:03machining. If there wasn't SNAP, I would still have a good job. She would have made sure of that.
01:02:11I would have been a machinist, but I wouldn't have to be anywhere near where she was because
01:02:19she ensured for me and for my brother that we continued to grow. Thank you.
01:02:26We are for a question. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Erin, thank you for sharing your story. I
01:02:34know your mom is proud of you. I'd like to start with a question to Caitlin. After serving in the
01:02:41Navy, what was it like to return to civilian life, and how did you go about establishing your life
01:02:48and your career outside of the service? That's a complicated question. Immediately after leaving
01:02:56the military, my husband and I moved to Dallas, Texas. He wanted to go to the University of North
01:03:01Texas, and I got a job within less than a month. I am not the type of person that can sit still.
01:03:06Attorney leave was absolutely awful for me in some cases. I mean, I enjoy my babies, but
01:03:12it was intense. I definitely got right to work right after, not really focusing on the transition
01:03:21struggles at all. It wasn't until my son was sick two years later, when my son was diagnosed with
01:03:26leukemia, that there was a break and there was a breath of air that I could take because I was
01:03:32working and going to school before that. Everything kind of set in, and I realized I didn't
01:03:37have friends. I had my son and I had my husband, and that was it. And that's when everything kind of
01:03:44just broke down for me, and I felt that lack of connecting, lack of drive, not drive, lack of
01:03:51belonging that I referenced in my testimony and why my student veteran, the student veteran
01:03:56organization at my university was so important for me to find. So I definitely landed very quickly,
01:04:02but once I was able to take a breath, that landing wasn't so soft.
01:04:07Thank you for sharing. Thank you for your service to our country and for sharing your story.
01:04:12Cindy, I had a question for you. Can you talk with us, your story about your commitment to
01:04:20your family is just so moving for all of us. Can you tell us as a caregiver, a mother, a grandmother,
01:04:26can you tell us the impact that SNAP had on your life and your family's life?
01:04:31Well, it's really a burden because mom being older, the kids being younger, my brother being
01:04:38disabled, they really don't understand how critical the SNAP is. Mom does, but the kids don't. So they
01:04:46don't understand what hunger is like. I mean, because I make it look easy, I do my best, and I
01:04:51work really hard to provide to make sure that they have. So if we lose SNAP, things are definitely
01:04:57going to change. And honestly, I've been trying to prepare them for that mentally.
01:05:01I've been speaking to them a lot about waste and honest, if I'm quite honest, about snacks. Hey,
01:05:10I didn't get snacks. So sometimes snacks may not be provided or also thinking about how to make
01:05:17meals and make them stretch, maybe soup and other things that will stretch a whole lot longer.
01:05:22But mentally, I've been really preparing them because the loss of that SNAP, those SNAP benefits
01:05:28will really be critical to our household. Thank you for sharing. Yield back, Madam Chair.
01:05:34Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Co-Chair, Congressman Frost for a question.
01:05:40Thank you so much. And thank you, Sydney, for your answer and for the care that you
01:05:44show to your family and your community. I think the true test of the character of a nation
01:05:51is do we see the world through the eyes of the most vulnerable? Do we see the world through the
01:05:58eyes of working people or through the eyes of billionaires? And that's what the Republican
01:06:04Party wants us to do right now, see the world through the eyes of people like Elon Musk.
01:06:08They want to cut more than $200 a month for families in terms of SNAP nutritional assistance.
01:06:17If that cut was passed into law, how would that impact your family? Would you still have
01:06:23enough money to put food on the table? No, I wouldn't. Like I said, I honestly
01:06:29don't know what we would do other than maybe going to food banks if I could,
01:06:36just trying to find other resources that we would have. But at this point, a $200 cut in
01:06:42those SNAPs, we wouldn't make it. We don't make it now, but what we have. And I work and I still
01:06:47have to provide food with my income. So that's just a help. That would never last a month.
01:06:55So at the end of the month, I think I make it maybe to the third week if I'm really, really
01:07:00careful. But other than that, I'm still supplementing along the way. So there's no
01:07:05way that we can live off of less than what we get right now. Thank you so much. That's stark and
01:07:10telling. And another reason why we can't allow these Republican cuts to go into effect. Behind
01:07:16every number, there's a human, there's a family, there are people. Aaron, I want to turn to you.
01:07:21How do you think your childhood would have been different if your family didn't have
01:07:27SNAP as a lifeline? At the time when we got SNAP,
01:07:32my mom was balancing so many things in the fire.
01:07:41The fact that I can remember us working together to scrounge the change in the couch to get gas
01:07:46for her to just go to work to get money, that cycle, that young was just the understanding
01:07:53of being resourcefulness. It wasn't that we were weaker. It wasn't that we didn't have.
01:07:58It was the fact that we were going to figure it out. So not having SNAP at the time as a child,
01:08:06for me, would have just really weighed on my mother more. She wouldn't have let it affect us.
01:08:12That was her superpower. She would find any way. I get asked a lot, like, how do I know how to do
01:08:19different things that I know how to do? And it's because of these situations that I'm able to do
01:08:25what I do on a day-to-day basis. It's because of her.
01:08:29Thank you so much, Aaron, for sharing your testimony on this, too. It's obvious that
01:08:34these Republican cuts, you know, the fastest growing class in our country isn't the middle
01:08:39class. It's the working poor. And these cuts will be devastating for working families across
01:08:45the entire country. Thank you. I yield back. Thank you, Congressman Frost and Congresswoman
01:08:51Brown, for a question.
01:09:12It's about providing people a path to a better future and extending a helping hand for those
01:09:18who have fallen on hard times. But it's also about keeping people healthy. SNAP includes
01:09:24several incentive-based programs that allow SNAP dollars to go further when purchasing
01:09:29fresh and healthy food. Aaron, as someone who has worked in healthcare, who works in healthcare
01:09:35today, can you talk about how SNAP and incentive-based programming are important to the
01:09:40overall community health? Bless you. I think looking at El Paso, we have one of the largest
01:09:53food banks in the United States with the most daily visits by our different communities
01:10:01within our city. When we're looking at healthcare and the stability of being able to eat,
01:10:10and a nutritious diet, chronic illness only grows with a lack of nutrition. Type 2 diabetes
01:10:22affects my community in particular quite a bit, and yet some of the things that we hear
01:10:28in my field of work is it costs too much. Eggs right now are $9.72 a carton in El Paso.
01:10:36I don't know how much they are everywhere else, but it's high. I mean, I didn't imagine the day
01:10:43that I'd say, well, back in my day they were $1.88, and it's this year. So I think SNAP in particular,
01:10:51we see so much benefit in healthcare, in the ideas of being able to pull people and show them
01:10:57this resource that they're able to lean on, because there's not a lot of education on how to get on it,
01:11:02especially in my community.
01:11:04Thank you very much, Aaron. Caitlin, we want to close with you. Thank you for your service and for sharing your story.
01:11:11We have heard about the struggles of veterans as they transitioned back to civilian life
01:11:15on many different fronts. As you relied on SNAP during your transition to civilian life,
01:11:21what challenges did you face in accessing food assistance, and how important was it for you
01:11:27as you got back on your feet?
01:11:30I think my mindset was one of the biggest challenges that I had when accessing assistance programs.
01:11:36When my son was diagnosed with leukemia, I had a job, my husband had a job,
01:11:43but we could not have paid for the medical bills. There was no way. The amount
01:11:50that we would have had to pay would have bankrupted us. It was just, it was insane.
01:11:57And so the first program that we applied for was Medicaid. And then when my husband and I
01:12:04split up and I was trying to, you know, make ends meet, I mean, he was able to provide some, but I
01:12:11just, I wasn't able to. It was me sitting down and realizing that there wasn't any food in the fridge.
01:12:18And I'm, I'm really good at making things from scratch. Like, I grew up in a very small town and
01:12:24my mom always instilled the ability to make things from scratch. And me, and even now today,
01:12:28that's what I do. Most of our stuff is made that way. I also find it to be cheaper. But I didn't
01:12:34know how I was going to give them breakfast the next day. And I am very big on making sure that
01:12:39they have, like, a solid breakfast every morning. And I had a whole breakdown in the middle of my
01:12:44living room not knowing what I was going to do. And so I told myself, fine, I guess I have to
01:12:50apply for this program. Terrified of what my family would say. Terrified of what people back
01:12:54home would say if they ever found out. And so it was really my mindset. I knew how to get it. I,
01:13:00I actually lived in North Royalton, Ohio at the time. So very close to Cleveland. And so once I
01:13:09overcame that mindset and realized that this was not something that made me less of a person. This
01:13:13was not something that was a reflection of being a failure. This was something that I needed.
01:13:20I needed it to make sure that they were fed and they were help, they were healthy and they
01:13:24were happy. And that I was healthy. And I think that's something that everyone could benefit from
01:13:30is just knowing that it's not there because you failed. You didn't fail. It's there to help you
01:13:37through a hard time. Because we all have hard times. And none of us know when it's going to
01:13:42happen. Like I said, I got a job right after. I was doing very well right after. But we never know
01:13:47when something like sickness is going to hit or we're going to lose a job or anything along those
01:13:52lines. And so helping to change that stigma, helping to change that mindset. So anyone that
01:13:58is in need understands that this is a program I can access. I can help feed myself. I can help
01:14:03feed my children. I can help feed my other family members. I need this. So I think it's really just
01:14:09the stigma and the mindset that needs to be changed more than anything. Thank you.
01:14:16Thank you, Rep. Brown. Thank you, Caitlin, Cindy, and Aaron for sharing your very powerful stories
01:14:22and highlighting the vital role food assistance plays in people's lives. I also want to thank
01:14:27Stacey and Tom for your advocacy and invaluable expertise in the fight against hunger. It's clear
01:14:35that SNAP food benefits are lifeline for many families. We must do all we can to guarantee
01:14:41that more than 40 million Americans who count on SNAP can continue receiving these benefits.
01:14:48The House Republicans' budget proposal to cut as much as $230 billion from SNAP is a five-alarm
01:14:56fire. And yet Donald Trump himself is cheerleading for this extreme plan. He wants Republicans to
01:15:04get it done. Ninety-nine percent of the House Republicans have already voted for this extreme
01:15:09proposal. Why are Republicans trying to take food off the plates of kids, families, seniors,
01:15:16and veterans? It's the same reason why they're trying to take health care for tens of millions
01:15:21of Americans by cutting Medicaid. They want to take from you to give huge tax breaks to the
01:15:27billionaire donors like Elon Musk. Let me be clear. Let me be clear. Democrats will never,
01:15:34ever support letting Americans go hungry or strip away health care to reward the wealthy
01:15:40and well-connected. We are doing everything, everything in our power to fight this Republican
01:15:46scheme. And we will never, ever stop fighting to protect the American people. I want to thank you
01:15:53all so very much again and thank my colleagues. This hearing stands adjourned, but our work will
01:15:58continue. Thank you.