Providing for Further Consideration of H.R. Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018

Floor Speech

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Ms. PLASKETT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time.

I would posit to my colleague across the aisle who said that we are trying to pit farm producers against food recipients, I believe that it is this bill that has done that.

We have worked in a bipartisan manner for, I understand, years before this bill was put through without being discussed, without the hearings on both sides of the aisle.

I try to think about what it would have meant to impose the massive system of new SNAP requirements under the bill during the time immediately after the islands were hit by two Category 5 hurricanes. How would families submit their monthly paperwork? How would they go to jobs at businesses that were shut down? How would job slots be provided when localities must focus on providing receipts?

There is no accommodation for disaster-impacted areas in this bill. And if the majority did not think to exempt out these communities, what else was overlooked in terms of reasonable standards?

Unfortunately, we didn't have the opportunity to work with the majority to get answers to such key questions before this bill was unveiled and rushed to the floor.

This doesn't add any help to farmers facing record-low income and commodity prices or hardships due to trade retaliation, as my colleague from Illinois discussed earlier. It does not support farmer mental health, appropriate funding for broadband, or tackling the opioid epidemic.

This bill cuts hundreds of millions out of rural development and energy initiatives and falls short on assisting beginning, underserved, and veteran farmers. Why? Because it is not a bipartisan bill.

I urge my colleagues to vote ``no.''

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