Marcy Kaptur: “Mr. Chairman, I wanted to thank the chairman of the subcommittee, the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Skeen), for his…”

“Mr. Chairman, I wanted to thank the chairman of the subcommittee, the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Skeen), for his sympathy to this proposal in support of the Colonias initiative. I wanted to also thank very deeply the members of the Hispanic Caucus, and Shirley Watkins at Food and Nutrition Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture for really helping us to begin to carve out a new initiative that would reach some of the most forgotten people in America. I want to commend the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Reyes), the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Ortiz), and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez) for their strong leadership on this proposal and to say that we look forward to working with them as we move toward conference to really make sure that this Colonias initiative is not forgotten. Some of the aspects of this proposal involve such initiatives as piloting breakfast and after-school snack programs right on the bus, as children are being driven to and from school because it is so difficult sometimes to reach many of the children who live in these areas, and also taking a look at how we could use traveling food pantries to reach some of the more isolated individuals of all ages who live in the Colonias.”