Sen. Casey | Sen. Reid | Sen. Chambliss | Spkr. Pelosi | Rep. Peterson | Rep. McGovern

Senator Bob Casey (D-Pa.)
“I conclude with the nutrition program. This farm bill makes substantial investments in domestic food assistance programs and improves the Food Stamp Program for our families. Mr. President, 1 in 10 Pennsylvanians is currently receiving food stamps, and we have tremendous help for those families in this bill.”

Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.)
“This bill has reform in it. Could we have done more? Perhaps, but had we done more, we would not have gotten a bill. What did we get as a result of the compromises made? We got nutrition. What a wonderful thing. We got food stamps. For us in Nevada this is important. Since 2000, the numbers of food stamps-qualified people have gone up more than 100 percent. We didn't change the rules to let more people into the program. They qualified under the old rules, and now, by more than 100 percent, that has been increased. This legislation takes care of that.”

Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.)
“While administration of the Food Stamp Program has turned a corner, a stigma still exists that prevents some eligible people from seeking the help they need. Even though the implementation of Electronic Benefit Transfer, or EBT, has restored dignity to those who depend on food assistance while at the grocery store, the term ``food stamps'' conjures up negative images for many. Food stamps haven't been issued in years, and the Federal Government destroyed the remaining inventory of stamps in 2003. For these reasons, the Food Stamp Program is being renamed as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The new name better reflects the mission of our country's premier domestic assistance program. Instead of referring to food stamps in the future, the term ``food SNAP'' should be used as we transition to the new name.

This farm bill invests $8 billion in food SNAP over the next 10 years. By increasing the standard deduction and minimum monthly benefit, food SNAP will provide improved benefit levels to help low-income families put nutritious food on the table. To make food SNAP more accessible to low-income Americans, this farm bill indexes the asset limitation for inflation, exempts IRS-approved retirement and education savings accounts from the asset test, and permits a full deduction for childcare expenses. Simplified reporting requirements are extended to low-income seniors to ease their ability to obtain benefits. The improvements made in this farm bill will ensure that food SNAP continues to improve the health and nutritional well-being of millions of people in need.”

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
“The Senate’s passage of the bipartisan Farm Bill is good news for families who are struggling with the high cost of groceries and gasoline, and good news for America’s farmers and ranchers who provide food and fiber for the world.

The overwhelming, bipartisan, and veto-proof votes of both the House and Senate will prevent the President from standing in the way of vital legislation that will reduce food prices by providing emergency assistance to farmers to help them get their products to market, and help families struggling with rising costs by increasing support for food stamp assistance, food banks, pantries, and soup kitchens. The Farm Bill’s historic $1 billion investment in energy independence and support for the transition to cellulosic ethanol will also help to reduce skyrocketing energy prices. This legislation is a strong start to reform our farm support system, and is the best Farm Bill I have ever voted for.

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin are to be congratulated for crafting a Farm Bill that meets the needs of farmers and ranchers while providing a historic investment in nutrition assistance to fight hunger. The strong, bipartisan votes the Farm Bill received this week on both sides of the Capitol are tributes to their outstanding leadership.”

Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.)
[I]t’s been a long road to get to this point, and I want to start off by thanking Mr. Goodlatte, the ranking member of the committee, again for his great work; my subcommittee chairmen, who started this process off; the ranking members on the Republican side; my friends on the Ways and Means Committee, Mr. Rangel especially, Mr. Pomeroy, for their hard work to get to this point; the Speaker for backing us up and helping us keep on track here to get to a final consideration; and for all of my colleagues in the House for being patient and working with us and giving us your input.

We have come to a point where I believe we have a good bill that should be supported by all Members of this Congress from urban, suburban and rural areas.

I have here a chart that shows how the current farm bill spending is going to be allocated on a 10-year basis, which is what we have to go by.

Nutrition in this new Food, Conservation, and Energy Act is 74 percent of the spending over the next 10 years in this food bill, commodities are 16 percent. Back in 2002, these numbers were 65 and 35 or something. Conservation is 7 percent; and energy and the specialty crops, the other items, are 3 percent…. Nutrition was more than the $10 billion of new money that was put in the bill, $10.3 billion; conservation, an additional $4 billion; specialty crops, $2.3 billion; and in the commodity title, we actually had a reduction. In addition to the $58 billion that we reduced, we had another $3.6 billion that we took out of the commodity title to help put money into these other areas.

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) Click here for his full statement.
“Thanks to the leadership of Speaker Pelosi and Congresswoman DeLauro, this bill includes the most sweeping expansion in the domestic anti-hunger safety net ever.

This bill will do more to fight hunger in America over the next five years than anything Congress has done in decades.

Over $10 billion will go to improve the Food Stamp benefit, to provide fresh fruits and vegetables to children in schools around this country, and to invest in America’s food banks.

Over 73 percent of the spending in this bill will fund the anti-hunger safety net. Damage that has been done over the years – the erosion of both the Food Stamp benefit and the emergency food assistance system, for example – is fixed in this bill.

M. Speaker, the Nutrition Title of the Farm Bill is not perfect, but it is very good.

I am voting for this bill on the strength of these improvements, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

These enhancements will improve the lives of real people around this country – people who desperately need help putting food on their tables in this time of spiking energy costs and rising food prices.

This bill will help more than 10 million people afford an adequate diet, including almost 200,000 people in my home state of Massachusetts.

Unfortunately, though, it won’t end hunger in America and it won’t end hunger around the world. I strongly believe hunger is political condition that requires a political solution. I believe we can end hunger here at home and around the world if we find the political will to do so.

But ending hunger will take leadership – leadership to stand up to the powerful special interests that don’t care about ending hunger; leadership to stand up for the people whose interests aren’t always represented here in the Halls of Congress; leadership to simply do the right thing.

And ending hunger is the right thing to do.

The face of hunger here in America is not one of sunken eyes and swollen bellies. No, the hungry in America are our neighbors, our children’s classmates and the seniors we see every day. Some serve in the military and others take their kids to soccer and baseball practice all over this country.

The face of hunger is the face of too many in America, but that doesn’t have to be the case any longer. This bill – the effort put forth by the anti-hunger community and by many Members of Congress – is just a start. With a continued and dedicated effort, this can truly be the beginning of the end of hunger in America.

This bill is a solid down payment on our efforts to end the scourge of hunger in America once and for all, and for that reason alone it deserves our support.”