Press Releases
Trahan Slams Republican Attempt to Slash Food Assistance for Women and Children
Washington,
July 26, 2023
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congresswoman Lori Trahan (MA-03) took to the House floor to criticize Congressional Republicans' proposal to cut food assistance programs, including the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Trahan, the mother of 8 and 12-year-old daughters, delivered the floor speech pleading with Republican members to listen to their constituents who rely on these programs to feed their families. “This bill is a demonstration of the Republican Party’s values. It’s a demonstration of what they think life is like for working families; that you can simply tell a mom and her children – or an expecting mother – to stop being poor, and magically, they won’t be poor anymore,” said Congresswoman Trahan. “But as someone who grew up in a working family that lived paycheck to paycheck, I can tell my colleagues across the aisle firsthand that’s not how it works. In fact, telling families to ‘pull themselves up by their bootstraps’ while cutting the very program they depend on to feed their children is going to have the opposite effect. It’s going to force millions of Americans, millions of children into hunger – or worse.” The Republican legislation up for a vote this week would slash funding for WIC, a program millions of women and children depend on to purchase food, including fruits and vegetables. Specifically, the bill would reduce the monthly WIC fruit and vegetable benefit:
CLICK HERE or the image below to view Trahan’s speech on the House floor:
A transcript of Trahan’s remarks as delivered is embedded below: -------------------------------------- Congresswoman Lori Trahan Remarks as Delivered Floor Speech on Cuts to WIC July 26, 2023 Mr. Speaker, I rise today because working families in my district and across the nation deserve better than the legislation the Republican majority is forcing through this week. Under the leadership of Speaker McCarthy, House Republicans have drafted a partisan bill that will slash funding for critical food assistance programs that parents depend on to feed their children. In fact, under this extreme proposal, the GOP is defunding hundreds of millions of dollars from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children – or WIC for short. That means that 5 million women and children nationwide, including 74,000 children and 24,000 women in my home state of Massachusetts are going to see their benefits drastically cut. If you think that sounds bad, just wait until you hear how Republicans are going to do it. For children, House Republicans are trying to reduce the WIC fruit and vegetable benefit from 25 dollars to just 11 dollars to cover a whole month. For pregnant and postpartum women, the GOP is slashing the fruit and vegetable benefit from 44 dollars to 13 bucks a month. And for breastfeeding moms, this extreme proposal imposes a devastating 60 percent cut from 49 dollars to just 15 each month. Mr. Speaker, these cuts are unnecessary, they’re dangerous, and they’re cruel. But above all else, this bill is a demonstration of the Republican Party’s values. It’s a demonstration of what they think life is like for working families: that you can simply tell a mom and her children – or an expecting mother – to stop being poor, and magically, they won’t be poor anymore. But as someone who grew up in a working family that lived paycheck to paycheck, I can tell my colleagues across the aisle firsthand that’s not how it works. In fact, telling families to ‘pull themselves up by their bootstraps’ while cutting the very program that they depend on to feed their children is going to have the opposite effect. It’s going to force millions of Americans, millions of children, into hunger or worse. Now Mr. Speaker, I know many of my Republican colleagues may not know what it’s like to worry about making ends meet. They may not know what it’s like to go to bed each night worrying if you’ll be able to put food on the table the next day or have to swipe that EBT card at the grocery store in front of a long line of people praying that it will cover everything in your cart. But there are thousands if not tens or hundreds of thousands of people in your home states who know exactly what that feels like, who experience that feeling every single day. And they’re depending on you to stop what you’re doing. Stop trying to cut the last safety net they have to make sure their kids don’t go hungry. I urge my colleagues to oppose this dangerous legislation, and I yield back my time. ### |
