Jim McGovern

It is not just about giving people food. It is about worker training. It is about getting people in the community back on their feet.

You could live without a lot of things, but you can't live without food, and we can't get food without agriculture and farmers.

Well, being a Congressman, sometimes you work all day, and accomplish nothing. But farmers, every day, you produce something.

But I guess the point is, shouldn't consumers have a right to be able to know that?

I do believe there ought to be a national standard because I do understand the patchwork of various state initiatives is not in anybody's interest.

The current system, and even kind of a voluntary system is lacking.

I do believe in transparency, and I do believe people ought to have a right to know what they want to know.

It is a false argument to say that labeling requirements will drive up the cost of food.

Does anyone want to talk about the glyphosate finding? I mean that is a legitimate scientific organization.

These service dogs have an incredibly positive effect on PTSD for our returning veterans, and I think we ought to do everything we can to make them available for people.

It is critical that we offer them multiple treatment options, and connecting veterans with lifesaving service dogs should be one of those comprehensive care options.

We must do what we can to ensure that they have the access to treatments that work.

I ask that the committee support a $5 million request for the Wounded Warriors Service Dog program.

I would like to think that we all can agree that everybody who is eligible for this benefit should be able to get it, that we shouldn't be going out of our way to make it more difficult for eligible people to get a food benefit.

We need to keep the focus on the importance of SNAP, and the importance of having an adequate SNAP benefit as people are working their way through some of your programs to hopefully end up with a job.

I have been advocating for a long time that the White House ought to do a White House Conference on food, nutrition and hunger to figure out how do we end hunger in this country?

We ought to make sure that the narrative that we are echoing here reflects the reality.

During that hearing there was testimony regarding additional Federal nutrition programs, including the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) serving seniors.

The majority of people on this program are kids, are senior citizens, are those who are disabled.

And anybody who tells you, and I have to say this, I really feel strongly about this, that this benefit is enough ought to live on it.

I want us to first fund it adequately and I want us to make it work as best as possible.

I am also for a plan to end hunger. We don't really have a plan in this country to end hunger.

Does anyone here believe that the current SNAP benefit is adequate for a family to be able to pay for the groceries they need for an entire month?

The whole concept of categorical eligibility was introduced basically to do what I think everybody here wants, to make these programs more user friendly and more effective and efficient.

The people that I meet with regularly and the people who I see at food banks are not there because they want to be at food banks, it is because they have run out of money.