On the recordJune 20, 2012
I rise to reluctantly oppose the amendment of my colleague. I appreciate what he is trying to do. I couldn't agree more about the needs of food banks. That is why in this legislation we increase food bank funding by $174 million. The problem is the way the Senator wants to do this, which is by reducing the funding available to stop food stamp fraud efforts. It would reduce the SNAP error rates efforts. Right now, what has been done to tackle waste, fraud, and abuse has actually reduced error rates dramatically--by 43 percent. We want to keep that going. So I certainly support what he is trying to do but not by taking money away from waste, fraud, and abuse efforts within the food assistance program. So I have to ask for a ``no'' vote. The PRESIDING OFFICER. All time has expired. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment.
