Students Come here I call to this hearing of the U.S Senate Sub committee and food and nutrition Especially crops Organics and research To order Chairwoman stevenow And ranking member boozeman thank you so Much for coming I thank you for your leadership on this Committee and I look forward to working With you to pass a farm bill A farm bill that works for a small Farmers rural communities and hungry Americans I would also like to thank my raking Member Senator Braun And I look forward to working closely With you Snap is one of the most effective Programs to fight hunger and poverty in The country In my time and effort in ifis as the Mayor of Braddock to Lieutenant Governor To now I have heard from pennsylvanians About their support for a snap Hunger is not a Republican or a Democrat Issue it's all of our issue that we have To take it on We need to come together and stop Playing political games with Americans Access to food Americans like chair About Corey George from the now to the
Town of Northeast in Pennsylvania Tells me that his victim was skimming Which was somebody stole money and he Relied from its snap EBT Mr George is not the first Pennsylvanian I've heard this from I fear he won't be The last And I will work in this farm bill to Modernize snap to work to recipients in The 21st century I look forward to from hearing from you Your witness on this new student by Assistance on the farm bill and I will Now turn to Senator Braun for any Opening comments that he would like to Make Thank you Mr chairman Thank you Senator and we will now move To introduce our Witnesses and I'm Excited about the panel that we have us With this today I'll introduce them all now Mrs Ty Jones Cox is the vice president Of the food assistance policy at the Senate for budget and policy priorities Welcome Miss Heather Reynolds is the managing Director of the lab for economic Opportunities at Notre Dame Welcome And Mrs Lori Jones John and the CEO of Filibunce The largest food food bank in Pennsylvania and is also serves of
Pennsylvania New Jersey okay It's a great organization from a great State that I've heard of pretty well We certainly agree MS MR James Whitford of the executive Directory of the watered Gardens in Joplin Missouri sir I like that look Laughs And then and finally Mrs Heist yeah Whitley Hasting of the Outreach Specialist which the hunger fee America For a food Link in New York And Mrs Cox you are now recognized for Five minutes Thank you again for this opportunity Thank you very much thank all of you And now we will now begin the five Minute rounds of the questions for each Member and I will begin with my own now Uh Mrs Cox Currently states allow snap mostly to do What they fit And I'm concerned about this about Proposals to limit this My own state of Pennsylvania has the Ability to seek waivers on work Requirements and times and depending on Employment metrics This is this also includes tools that to Ensure that low-wage working household Avoiding a benefit cliff Can you possibly explain the potential Impact that these proposals would have On States
Well thank you Mrs Cox and uh I'd Actually have one more kind of a brief Another question please Yeah many snap households have had Benefits stolen through skimming Victims faced a serious challenge of Losing their purchase power When debit cards are skimmed they are Credentials for the car holder What can what needs can be done to Ensure that families have that same kind Of being protecting Um Mrs Jones Brown Food banks are really critical for the Support Foundation of snap would you Agree with that absolutely The emergency food assistance program or Tfap was established to provide Emergency food assistance to low-income Individuals and these individuals may Not qualify for snap but they might need Additional support Food banks like filibust and knowing Personally either the kind of quality of The work that you do in my own state They distribute 85 percent of tfat foods Nationwide As Americans struggle with high food Costs how have you been able to allow You to continue to provide food support Mr chairman I yield back thank you and I Apologize to my colleague for going over Thank you Senator and especially thanks
To every one of you the witnesses today That came in so here from you all today So thank you You know you know protecting snap and Preventing fraud isn't a Republican or Democratic issue though I think we both Everyone agree on that it's time for the USDA to and state agencies updated their Technology security to prevent fraud I Hope I would hope we all agree I intend To strengthen the usda's tools to Existing mandate to do so the USDA is Already making significant efforts to Modernize snap and its nutritional Assistance One of these efforts are updating the Thrifty food plan which which we all Have discussed today This update is a modest investment with A significant impact for working Americans who need it We have to work to protect snap for the 21st century and I look forward to Working with my colleagues to getting That done I heard from one respondent's theme During this hearing that those who use Snap do not want to use it forever it is I have never met any American that they Hoping that they can stay on Snap for Their whole lives not at all no one does They are only here on it because they Need it Snap is a program that helps individuals
Like Ms Hasty and the people like Mr Excuse me Mrs Jones at Brown and Ms Reynolds to work with it all helps Americans who fall on Hard Times And I'll end with this we need to pass a Farm bill that works for every day Americans the record will remain for a Bing for five more days and now this Hearing is adjourned Foreign
