Pete Domenici: “I am pleased to have Senator Harkin as a cosponsor of this amendment. There are two parts to my amendment; both parts…”

“I am pleased to have Senator Harkin as a cosponsor of this amendment. There are two parts to my amendment; both parts have no cost. The first part addresses the 12,000 military families on Food Stamps. For 3 years the Defense Department has refused to take this problem seriously. I first wrote to DoD in 1996; then I was told that this was a problem only because military personnel have decided, and I quote, ``to have a larger family than he/she can afford.'' In other words, it is Defense Department policy to discourage military families and to engineer the size of those families. In 1997, I wrote again to Secretary Cohen because he publicly stated that it was ``not acceptable'' for military personnel to be on Food Stamps. I regret to say that he wrote back saying only that he would ``monitor'' the issue. Last year in the fiscal year 1998 Defense Authorization bill, Congress mandated a DoD report on potential solutions. The report is now several months late and will not be submitted in the foreseeable future. Congress is getting the bureaucratic stiff-arm from DoD on this issue. It's time to bring that to an end. My amendment will require DoD to propose low cost solutions to this problem, and it requires these proposals as a part of DoD's FY 2000 budget request. Next year. If DoD still refuses to take this problem seriously, I will propose my own solution.”