Mike Conaway: “I thank the gentleman very much for allowing me to speak this evening. Today, we introduced H.R. 2, which is the…”

“I thank the gentleman very much for allowing me to speak this evening. Today, we introduced H.R. 2, which is the Agricultural Nutrition Act of 2018. H.R. 1 was the tax bill, and so leadership, the Speaker in particular, believed that this issue is important enough that he gave us that rare opportunity to have a single-digit bill number. My colleagues will join us tonight at the microphone and we will talk about more of the details, but 3 years ago we began this quest to reform SNAP. We wanted to start with basically as blank a sheet of paper as we could get. We didn't want to be constrained by spending or resources. We just wanted to find the best policy we could possibly get to so it would let us know our guideposts. We did that. We had it scored. It comes in at a budget-neutral position, which is what our commitment to the broader conference was, and accomplished that on not only SNAP, but also with the rest of the title as well. We did six listening sessions around the country this past year. Three-hundred-plus good citizens stepped to the microphone to speak to Members of Congress about what was on their heart, what was working with the farm bill, all aspects of it. I specifically remember a young woman who stood at the microphone, incredibly brave young lady, who said: I am the reason that SNAP needs to stay in place. She said: I was 18 years old, a single mother of a 3-year-old, and I didn't like my future, and I wanted to go to college.…”