Walter B. Jones: “I am on the floor tonight because we have approximately 11,000 men and women in uniform that are willing to die for this…”

“I am on the floor tonight because we have approximately 11,000 men and women in uniform that are willing to die for this country on food stamps. Yes, Madam Speaker, we have passed legislation that will help increase their salaries, but still we have men and women in uniform on food stamps. Members can see what I have before me is a Marine. He represents not only the Marine Corps, but every man and woman in uniform. Standing on his feet is his daughter Megan, who is 2 years old, and in his arms is a baby girl named Bridget. I think about Megan and Bridget and all the children that are children of men and women in uniform, and the fact that when this Marine is deployed to go overseas to Bosnia for 6 months, there is no guarantee that he is going to come back. There is no guarantee that any of our men and women in uniform who are sent into harm's way will for sure come back. I look at that little girl's face, and I am thinking, as she is looking at the camera when this photograph was made, how tragic it would be if the father did not come back. But almost as tragic is the fact that we have approximately 11,000 men and women in uniform that are on food stamps. These are men and women, like this Marine, that are willing to die for this country when called upon. And yet we can't find $59 million over a 10-year period of time to give men and women in uniform on food stamps a $500 tax credit. Madam Speaker, I think that is a shame.”