On the recordJune 12, 2013
I thank the gentlelady from California for her consistent, heartfelt, energetic leadership on this issue for many years. And I see the gentleman from Georgia is here. I am so pleased he brought down his stash for the week. I had to ask him, Did you really get those bananas? He budgeted so well that he was able to stay within the $31.50 for the week. Now we've done this before, and I can tell you, it's not pleasant if you're really adhering to this budget. But we had an effect before. When Members joined together and took the challenge, we were able not only to keep the cuts from occurring, but to raise the level for those on food stamps. I was interested to hear the gentleman from Massachusetts talk about the low error rate, something like 3 percent. I just sat through a committee hearing this morning, and the discussion was about how much waste and fraud reported in a 2011 report about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. They reported that about 30 percent was attributed to waste and fraud. Here we have poor people in a program with the lowest error rate I've seen in a long time. I want to thank all of the Members who visited at what I call our neighborhood Capitol Hill Safeway at 14th and D Streets, Southeast, where we had the help of employees who helped guide us toward the least expensive food. What we're talking about here is the House outdoing the Senate. The Senate bill already cuts $4 billion. The House wants to up that five times.…
