And vicki kennedy, the widow of Edward Kennedy discussed their husbands careers and legacies conversation about Public Service at the Kennedy School of government and Harvard University. Next, a house panel looking at the Trump Administrations changes to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. We hear from the Senior Vice President of the no kid Hungry Campaign and antipoverty advocates. Come to order, weve got objection and the chair is authorized for a recess at any time. I now recognize myself for five minutes to give an Opening Statement. Every child deserves the chance to grow up healthy. Children shouldnt have to worry about where their next meal will come from. Thats an unimaginable burden for a young person that can deprive them oftheir childhood. Food insecurity hurts childrens academic outcomes, their ability to Pay Attention and their behavior. It has longterm impacts on physical and Mental Health and even depresses lifetime earnings. As doctor Martin Luther king said in 1964, there is nothing newabout poverty. Sowhat is new however is that we have the resources now to get rid of it. That same year, in 1964 america and acted the precursor to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program known as snap. America still has the resources to address poverty and the ability to lift up societys most vulnerable so they can achieve the american dream. Is one of our best tools for doing that. Provide moderate assistance to help americans in need. On average only 1. 43 per meal for participants and nearly 70 percent of households receiving snap benefits have children. But that doesnt just help feed children, the elderly and disabled that make up two thirds of its participants. It also boosts the economy, more than any other Government Program. According to moodys, every dollar of snap benefits increases gdp by 1. 73. Just to repeat, every one dollar of snap benefits increases the National Economy by 1. 73 area thats an incredible return on investment and snap creates jobs. According to the usda every 10,000 in snap benefits create one fulltime rural jobs approximately every 20,000 in snap benefits create one alltime urban job. Snap dollars are quickly spent on food necessities that flow into local businesses, ultimately supporting trucking and farm jobs among other things so this Program Designed to feed children, elderly and disabled also boosts our economy and creates jobs and this committee is responsible for combating waste, fraud and abuse but its worth noting snap related fraud is almost nonexistent. Snap also gives states flexibility to tailor the program to their citizens needs. First it is incentivizes work by allowing states to use income eligibility limits so someone doesnt have to turn down work to maintain snap eligibility. Second, snap allows states to let citizens own a car to get to work or to save for an emergency surprise medical bill. The Administration Currently through their proposal to change snap wants to disarm states of both of these tools. But in doing so, it will strip 3. 1 million households of their snap benefits including more than 2 million households with children. It also strips free lunch enrollment from nearly 1 million kids. For those children the Trump Administration policy would take food out of their mouths omat home and at school. How can we expect those kids to succeed . Yeah this ration needs to abandon this proposal as a chairman Elijah Cummings would have said, we are better than this. We know what is different it makes for families and children who would otherwise go hungry. I know frompersonal experience. I came to the United States from india with my parents when i wasthree months old so my father could pursue his education and our family could embrace the opportunities that america has to offer. Despite my parents best effort it wasnt easy. When we needed help, we were able to receive food stamps as my parents worked their way out of a difficult time. Today my father and engineering professor of 40 years bill teaching at Bradley University in. Or atillinois, my brother doctor and i am a congressman. That was my familys dream and it was possible because of my parents hard work but also because of the opportunities our country presents and the generosity and goodwill of the American People in america and an american president once told congress that hunger and malnutrition persist in a land such as ours is embarrassing and intolerable. That president was richard nixon. If president nixon and doctor king could agree on the importance of fighting hunger all those decades ago , surely, surely we can find Common Ground today to continue congresses strong support forsnap. Thank you and now i recognize chairwoman maloney or her Opening Statement. Thank you so much and thank all of you for coming today. As chairwoman of the committee on oversight and reform , i want to thank roger not kirsten murphy, chairman of the subcommittee on consumer policy for convening this important hearing. I also want to thank him for sharing his personal story. And showing how important this program is and we need to protect food for our families, our many struggling our wonderful people. I think you really show the importance of this incredible program. This hearing will examine the proposed rollbacks of broadbased categorical eligibility. For the supplemental nutrition Assistance Program or snap. One of the most important programs the federal government has. This is the third in a series hearings that we are having this week. Examining the negative effects of the Trump Administrations policies or property, housing, hunger and Health Regulations for children. These hearings are about the trumpet ministrations on children. Congress should be protecting children on the administrations harmful regulations and ensuring that our children have the resources they need to reach their full potential. One in six children in this country is already food insecure. Meaning they lack reliable access to food. According to the Us Department of agricultures own estimates, if this proposal is enacted, over 680,000 households with children would lose the snackfood benefits and nearly 1 million children would likely lose direct enrollment for preschool meals. The ministrations efforts to roll back broadbased eligibility for snap will increase Food Insecurity for children across this country, and any effort to modify snap should reduce Food Insecurity and not make kids hungry. Especially here in america. Ideal back. Thank you chairwoman and thank you for your leadership on this particular issue area that we really appreciate. Thank you for your leadership and all of these hearings i think are so important and it shows uniformity of the attack on children. Were looking atfood , rolling back the poverty standards. Loosening the controls on toxic editions and two environments. All terribly damaging to children. I think we should put in, put them all back and make laws in this country. Thank you chairwoman. Mister cloud is on his way back from an engagement and he will present hisOpening Statement. Following the witnesses. Let me first introduce miss lisa davis. Senior Vice President for the no kid Hungry Campaign and share our strength, thank you so much. Mister zach happen. Principle of Jefferson Elementary School in the Cheboygan Area School district in wisconsin, thank you so much. Miss diane sullivan, im sorry. Just got cut off a little bit. An advocate and shes with the organization witnesses to hunger. Miss tega toney, a teacher at Oak Hill High School in the Fayette County schools, thank you. And of course, mister adelson, he is a policy director with the foundation for government accountability. Thank you sir. If you would alwaysrise. And raise your right hand, i will begin by swearing you in. You swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to get is the truth, hold and nothing but the truth. So help you god. The records show the witnesses answered in the affirmative. Thank you and you may be seated. Microphones are sensitive so please speak directly into them. I will explain the iklighting system briefly. Green means go, red means s stop and yellow unlike with stoplights here in speed up. Okay. With that miss davids you are now recognized forfive minutes. Morning, thank you for the opportunity to join you today to share our concern about the ministrations proposed rules rollback broadbased bbc. Gorical eligibility for my name is lisa davis and im a Senior Vice President of our no kid Hungry Campaign. Share our strength is focused on ending poverty and hunger in the us and worldwide but we do have a particular focus on children in the United States. Im here today to talk about two things. First, to provide a brief overview of bbc and why it is so important for families. And second, how this rule would hurt working poor families, seniors and individuals with disabilities. First, what it does. The ece is an effective practical policy that there are many families with gross incomes above hundred 30 percent of poverty. But you still have difficulty making ends meet and according food because of high cost of things like housing, childcare, medical benefits. Bbc allows these families to and remain eligible for set and to preschool meals. Creates efficiency and reduces administrative burdens on state agencies in schools but most importantly, it encourages work. It helps low income families out of poverty and build financial security. It allows them to accumulate assets whether an unexpected financial crisis. It also helps ensure that their children can receive the nutrition they need at home and at school. One thing bbc is not is an automatic pathway to snap benefits. Families must still apply and qualify for benefits through the regular application process. Which as rigorous procedures for documenting income and circumstances. Indeed, family and the guy currently eligible for snap but not receive the benefit because their net income is too high. Let me give you an example of who it helps. A similar mother was to children who works fulltime and endurance 12. 50 an hour would receive 161 in snap per month. Without being ece, it if her weight is increased by just a few centsntan hour , her income would exceed hundred 30 percent of poverty and her family wouldlose snap , ending up with 75 per month fewer in resources. She sewould actually be worse off by accepting a marginal race. Bbc prevents that and support work by letting the family slowly phase as moms earnings increase. Access to staff is important because a robust body of research reinforces that snap is our nations most effective nutrition program, particularly for children by her reducing Food Insecurity and improving a childs longterm outcomes including health , education and even lifetime earnings. Snap provides a return on investment in a corporate ceo would envy. And make no mistake, the ministrations proposal to restrict bbc would be a heart step backwards in our fight to end childhood hunger. Ifyou ministrations proposed rule becomes law, 3. 1 Million People , more than 2 million of whom have children would lose their snap benefits entirely and an estimated 982,000 children will lose the automatic certification for preschool mill meals that results from their families receipt of snap. Even though many of these children will remain income eligible for free or reduced ha price meals, exploring tells us that far too many will fall through the cracks. Confusion about eligibility, human error and stigma all create barriers to enrollment and even though lowercost of reduced meal is a better edcost meal for families saving every dime to cover basics like rent, utilities and gas so what happens when children wh lose in school meals mark they had a double way of meals lost at home and school, it exacerbates allthe other problems hungry children face , diminishing their academic performance and physical health and the opportunity to achieve their full potential. Food is one of the most timportant School Supplies in half. I work with families living with Food Insecurity. Their moms and dads who are working incredibly hard to better their lives and those of their children often hold down multiple jobs, cut expenses to the bone and yet still find it impossible to stretch the paychecks to make ends meet one emergency expense like a car repair or a medical bill can set them back for months or years. I would like to leave you with one final fact. Broadbased categorical eligibility is working. It helps low income families work and build savings area it also ensures that their children get the fuel they need to grow, thrive and reach their potential. These are goals we can agree on area. Acumen status. Mister essen. It is 10 am on monday morning and you are sitting in your third grade classroom. The teacher is beginning to wintroduce a reading lesson for the day focused on the phonics of howconsonants Work Together to make sound will help you decode words. You are asked to Work Together with apartner to identify words with the same pattern. You look around and think everyone is able to focus on the task but you cannot. It has been 65 hours since you ate a substantial quality meal for lunch at school area your stomach begins to turn and you start to feel anxious and frustrated. All you can think about is the lunch period. The teacher notices you are not paying attention and asks you to focus on the partner project as generalized you how important it is to be a goodreader. You think this is not as important to me as it is to you, i am hungry. You lose a connection with the teacher is to believe she doesnt understand you and you begin to tune her out. Several after several weeks, out you f tuning her realize you are so far far behind the idea of catching up academically teams overwhelming and not worth your energy area did you look for ways to pass the time which means talking to your friends and disrupting the class. All these disruptions that you sent to the Principals Office to avoid the embarrassment ofnot knowing the material. Disruptions become more chronic until eventually you are suspended from school. Time goes on and your attendance rate drops. When desperation overcomes you you decide to drop out of school. With few job skills you areleft with limited options for employment. They do not pay well enough or are stable enough to advance your career. You are living paycheck to paycheck. Youstart a family and want what is best for them. We want what every parent wants from every background a better future. You worked several jobs so you can become financially secure but you are not spending time with your family. Your Childs School once you involved but you have to decide between being there for your kids or financial solvency. One of the Biggest Barriers to social success and social mobility is nutrition. Jefferson Elementary School in sheboygan as students like this as well as countless schools across the country. These schools are not only located in major urban areas but Rural Communities. Even in Sheboygan County that boasts one of the lowest percentages of unemployment. Changes affecting eligibility of students will have an overall negative effect on our schools and communities across the country. Using the combined average percentage of students from direct certified families the sheboygan Area School District has four schools eligible participating in the cep program. The Program Allows the schools to offer a free breakfast and lunch to all our students regardless of our participation. M parents no longer have to complete a complex annual free or reduced lunch application but a much simpler alternative income form used in determining if economically disadvantaged. When all students are participating in school lunch it creates an environment free of stigma. When all students are getting the same meal it becomes less apparent which students come from which families area when all students participate, meal participation increases dramatically. Our data shows when more students in a school meal option behavior incidents decline. When all students participate in meal programs we are able to adjust our schedule to include serving akbreakfast in the classroom. It allows students the time to chair a meal together, build relationships that goes beyond education. Students and teachers can talk about their lives outside of school, learn important social skills and spot the child struggling and offer support. Relationships created during these mealtimes are invaluable to building a School Community focused onthe whole child. By offering free meal options we also