Senator fetterman i call this subcommittee to order. Chairwoman stabenow. And Ranking Member boozman. Thank you so much for coming. I thank you for your leadership on this committee and i look forward to working with you to pass a farm bill. A farm bill that works for small farmers, Rural Communities and hungry americans. I would also like to thank my Ranking Member, senator braun, and i look forward to working closely with you. Snap is one of the most effective programs to fight hunger and poverty in the country. In my time in office as the mayor, Lieutenant Governor to now, i have heard from americans about their support for snap. Hunger is in the a republican or a democrat issue. Its all of our issue that we have to take on. We need to come together and stop playing political games with americans access to food. Americans like cory from the town of northeast in pennsylvania tells me that he was a victim of skim, somebody stole money from his snap e. B. T. Hes not the first pennsylvanian i have heard this from. I fear he wont be the last. And i will work in this farm bill to modernize snap to work to recipients in the 21st century. I look forward to hearing from you, your witness for assistance on the farm bill. I turn to senator braun for any opening comments he would like to make. Senator braun thank you, mr. Chairman. Thanks to our witnesses for being here today. This is the Second Congress that im serving as Ranking Member on the subcommittee. Im excited to return to the subcommittee and im looking forward to working with chairman fetterman to find bipartisan solution. Were meeting today as part of the committees consideration of the 2023 farm bill. The bill will cost us more than it ever has in history. I want to make sure that if were spending more we do it efficiently. Earlier this year when secretary vilsack testified before the committee, i asked him as the former governor if he was concerned with runaway spending, and he, like many of us, would be. When we entertain any of this we have to make sure were getting value out of whatever were proposing. I ran a logistics and distribution business for 37 years and did it sustainably by keeping overhead low, being very aggressive and finding new ways of doing things and was able to pay the bills and grow the company sustainably. Id like to see some parallels here in terms of how we do things in our own federal government. As the Committee Drafts and considers the 2023 farm bill i look forward to work theegz into it. I will propose legislation, the snap fresh Pilot Program act, to create a Pilot Program with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that allows recipients to spend down part of their benefit to receive a food box with fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy and eggs. As we learned in the hearing on fad as medicine, the private sector has a vested interest in using wellness and nutrition to decrease spending on remediation medically. So not only here, the private sector needs to pick up the slack and do that on their own account as well. This program checks each of these boxes by creating a new option within snap that allows recipients to exercise agency and it also is going to let increases to Healthy Foods, through snap. I think its got a twopronged approach it to. I also plan to introduce legislation, the hand up act that will ensure snap is implemented in a way that measure play bli improves the Employment Outcomes of ablebodied americans. It helps connect recipients with work by closing the loopholes the government has used to down play the stability of employment by requiring states to focus on commonsense Outcome Measures in their employment and Training Programs. Ablebodied dulls without dependents are required to work, by law, to work, volunteer or participate in a work program for at least 80 hours per month to keep their snap benefits. This work requirement has been in place since 1996 and was passed with bipartisan support, including that of senator joe biden. Today, 18 states including california and new york operate with full state wavers. In fact, half of snaps w. D. s live in waived areas, many of which have low unemployment and ample job listings. That gives us an opportunity to find more employment and help feed those better that need it. Well hear from our Witnesses Today about how snap can be improved to actually help recipients escape poverty and im really looking forward to what each one of you has to say. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Senator fetterman thank you, senator. We will now move to introduce our witnesses. Im excited about the panel that we have with us today. Ill introduce them all now. Ms. Jones cox is Vice President of the Food Assistance policy at the senate for budget and policy priorities. Welcome. Ms. Heather roanldz is the managing director of the lab for Economic Opportunities at notre dame. Welcome. Mrs. Lori jones john, c. E. O. Of filibuns, the largest food bank in new jersey. A Great Organization from a great state ive heard of as well. We certainly agree. Senator fetterman mr. James whitmer, executive director of the gardens in joplin, missouri. Sir. I like that look. [laughter] and finally, mrs. Hice, the outreach specialist for food link in new york. And mrs. Cox, you are now recognized for five minutes. Ms. Jones cox thank you for the opportunity to testify. Im part of a nonpartisan policy institute in washington, d. C. I want to make three key points. Snap plays a Critical Role in reducing hunger and poverty. Snap supports and incentivizes workers by making ends meet and snap should be strengthened in the farm bill. Snap is our nations most effective cool for combating hunger and Food Insecurity especially among children, older adult, people with disabilities and veterans. Snap reduces Food Insecurity by as much as 30 . Snap also plays a Critical Role in reducing poverty. Snap provides families with the money they need to purchase grocery, helping to free up their limited resources to spend more on other basic needs such as housing, utilities and child care. Snap improves outcomes in education, economic security, and selfsufficiency for children later in life. When children are hungry their performance at school suffers. When children have access to snap benefits they are more likely to complete school, attain Higher Education and go on to secure better paying jobs. Nap is also linked to better health. Snap participants are more likely to report very good health than lowincome nonparticipants and children participating in snap face lower nutrition dl deficiencies which improves their health jut comes throughout their lifetimes. Snap reduces racial disparities. One chart that sticks with me highlights huge disparities between the Food Insecurity rate of households headed by a black, latino, native american adult a opposed to a white adult. The different cab 15 to 20 percentage points. Boosts to snap benefits in 2021 reduced racial disparities. As we think about improving snap our eye must remain on how to reduce disparities and not increase them by making harmful cuts. Finally, snap is an important support for workers. The majority of snap participants are children, older adults and people with disabilities. Among snap participants who can work the majority do so or will return in the future. But many of the jobs held by snap participants such as various or sales positions often pay low wages and dont offering rework hours or benefits like paid sick leave. Snap supplements low pay, helps smooth out income fluctuations draw to irregular hours, take, for example, a mother of two teenagers working two jobs at minimum wage but doesnt make enough to afford rising prices of food and housing. Snap keeps her and her family fed. For millions of workers, work does not itself guarantee steady or sufficient income to provide for their families as the legal aid attorney of virginia i saw clients balance work, child care and care giving demands and snap provided a Critical Link when their income was not enough to feed their families. Snap is a program that incentivizes work by providing critical Food Assistance for lowwage workers why theyre working and during periods of unemployment. Given these realities of lowwage work, any attempt to expand snaps existing harsh work reporting requirements relying on faulty assumptions. Research shows that taking snap benefits away from people doesnt help them find joshes higher earn, it just leaves them and their families with less money for food. No one can work when they are hungry. Snap is an important but modest benefit at only 6 per person per day and snap and snap spending did increase in the pandemic when it greatly reduced hunger but snap spending has begun to fall with the end of the emergency pandemic provisions. Families already experiencing a cut as a result which means less money for food at a time when food prices are high. Snap is successful at reducing poverty and Food Insecurity and should be protected from cuts. Instead of making the program less effective by cutting it or creating more barriers for participants we should make improvements so it does even more to combat hunger for everyone. For example, we must increase access, some lowincome food insecure people are excluded from the program entirely including those with time limit, people with drugrelated felony convictions and People Living in certain u. S. Territories. In conclusion, many 2018, this committee showed you can find bipartisan agreement to protect and modestly strengthen snap with the farm bill that got 86 votes from senators. As this Committee Works to develop the 2023 farm bill i urge you to work in that veen to shore in that vein to shore up this program that has already proven to be so successful at reducing hunger among our most vulnerable and protect it from cuts that would take food away from people who need it most. Thank you. Ms. P fetterman thank you, mrs. Thank you. I serve at the university of notre dame where we work with providers across the country to build rigorous evidence around programs designed to move people out of poverty. Prior to joining l. E. O. I spent two decades as c. E. O. Of Catholic Charities fort worth. I will never forget meeting marsha, a single mom working a fulltime job that just didnt cut it. She spent hours figuring out which bill to pay because when you make 1,200 a month you spend a significant amount of your time making such choices. She came to us because the avalanche of poverty had just closed in around her. Shed run out of food and was living in a place with no Running Water in the bathroom. We worked with marsha, helping her with foot via snap and getting her into new housing. When marsha moved into her new apartment she taught her daughter a life lesson that i pray i never have to teach mine. She took her hands and she held it urn the warm Running Water. She squeezed it tightly and told her little girl never to take anything for granted. I struggle to tell this story without feeling and sad and if im honest kind of angry. How much potential did your country use from this woman because she spent so much time figuring out how to feed her family . How behind are her children in school because she couldnt spend time reading to them, or they were hungry which we know is not ideal for learning. Instead this mom spent her energy trying to make sure her family survived in poverty. Today, i want to use my time to suggest two points that i believe would have made her situation better. First, as we think about the farm bill, we need to be less focused on work requirements and more focused on evidencebase red form that will give people a way out of poverty. 75 of snap recipients who are not disabled or elderly already work. Our solution needs to be to give them solutions that work. Thats why we at notre dame spend so much of our time working with providers across the country to understand what works for a path out of poverty. We have over 90 Research Studies across the country and our partners have solutions. Solutions in texas. We completed a randomized control trial to understand the impact of the program, a holistic Case ManagementProgram Designed by Catholic Charities fort worth. Families get flexible Financial Assistance that casing mores can cuse use to incentivize clients. Clines for 25 more likely to be employed, 60 more likely to be stably housed and experianed a shortstop decline in credit card debt. Solutions in new york. The bridges to Success Program is designed by action for a Better Community to provide working poor residents of rochester with economic mobility mentors. 73 of these participants utilized snap at the time of intake. They set explicit goals and worked to achieve selfsufficiencies with help along the way. We have done a randomized control of this program and the results show people are more likely to be employee. And in indiana, the goodwill scesdz center operate 15s tuitionfree public charter high schools that support adult learners in completing their state Certified High School diploma. The excel Center Provides small classes on a flexible schedule and wraparound service. Our rigorous study of the program showed adults increase earnings by 38 . What if marsha had had access oto one of these proven programs five years before finding Catholic Charities . Would her daughter have had to learn about the joys of running watt her probably not. In our country we have the employment and Training Programs designed to increase the employment prospects of snap recipients. In 2016, only 3. 3 of snap recipients who were subject to work requirements participated. States are not incentivized to invest in these programs. Which brings me to my second point. We need to scale up evidencebased solutions. Senators, you have access to resources that Catholic Charities, action for a Better Community and goodwill does not. They have done the hard work for you. They provided you with solutions that give people a path to upward mobility. Theyve given you the answers. Theyve allowed researchers into their business. And now we owe it to them to let their evidence scale about what works. Family first gives us good precedent for how we can put evidence first and make it actionable for providers. In both cases federal law now requires providers to either use and evidencebased program or to build rigorous evidence. The clearinghouse verifies the validity and strength of the research preuxing a program is impact. This combination of requirements plus a wellrun clearinghouse shows us a path forward. As policymakers, we need you allocating Public Policy dollars to allow these evidencebased services to scale because they work. What bothers me most about marshas story is that while it is just one story i know there are millions of others just like her. Im asking you to put this evidence to work. Thank you. Mr. Fetterman thank you. Mrs. Jones brown. Ms. Jones brown good afternoon, chair fetterman, Ranking Member, senators. I work with an Organization Serving five counties in pennsylvania and four in new jersey. Im here to share why passing a bipartisan farm bill is critical to the Food Security of our neighbors in need and the well being of our nations economy and food system. Like all of you this morning i did not make the difficult choice between breakfast or paying my light bill. But for many of our neighbors these are the tough choices they make every day, choosing between food and keeping the lights on. When i spend time visiting our 600plus Community Partners and the neighbors we serve, what i see is people are scared. They are worried about not having a basic thing like food. Fargo, the founder of one of our partners said, were noticing an incredible influx of new clines, were serving 120 to 150 people per day. Last sense of desperation thats heightened. People are lining up earlier. Theres a feeling of scarcity that didnt exist before. People are panicked. Its important to understand that all of the federal nutrition programs Work Together. Any cuts to any of them, any policy that makes these programs inaccessible for those who need them the most only puts pressure on food banks to fill the gap. We are seeing pressure today with increased demand at food banks as a snap emergency allotment and other temporary federal supports have come to an end and at a time of high inflation. This makes lines at our food pantries longer. That whies we must improve csst and strengthen snap. We take a holistic approach to nourishing our communities. Through a Backpack Program to help kids have a healthy start, our partnerships with health care organization, we know that access to Good Nutrition and food is vital to improving the Health Outcomes for