Transcripts For CSPAN3 Senate 20240705 : vimarsana.com

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 Management Program 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 lowincome families. We must continue to support critical nutrition programs to ensure that vulnerable populations have access to the food they need. We also run a culinary Jobs Training Program that receives support from snap employment and training. When you invest in people providing training and support that can lead to selfsufficiency. Then you can create a pathway out of prty. It takes time, patience and critical investment to provide people with the tools needed to gain skills to find job. These investments, not harsh work rierlt, are what truly support work and financial stability. We see it every day. The struggle for working families to make ends meet when too often their pay is not enough to cover their basic needs. One neighbor told us, i work full time. By the time i pay my bills i have nothing left. I dont make a lot, im only eligible for 90 in snap benefits a month. People are cobbling together takehome pay, snap and other resources and sometimes thats not even enough. During the pandemic what we learned is bipartisan leadership to address hunger works. Because the government made bold investment and is directing hunger, more people were fed at a time of high need. According to the usda, Food Insecurity did not increase. Heres what im asking you to kor today that. You draft a bipartisan farm bill to strengthen the federal nutrition program, have policy changes that build on Lessons Learned in the pandemic and remove red tape to simplify Program Access and operations. Specifically i ask that you strengthen funding, as demand for food remains high at food banks, a reliable, continuous stream of food is essential. Congress should increase funding to 500 million in mandatory funding for food purchases for tfap. This will ensure the flow of foods remains steady throughout the network and support the u. S. Agricultural economy as other programs are dwindling. Protect snap funding and structure while addressing systematic barriers to benefits. Snap is our best defense against hunger. It is the most effective, efficient way to ensure people access to foods they need and want. The farm bill must strengthen snap and any cuts to the program cannot be made off local food bank. We are already concerned about how to deal with the emergency allotment coming to an end. We streamline a program that serves seniors should be much easier to navigate. Support partnerships with growers and producers. We can help people who are hupgry and farmers at the same time with a program that had Great Success in pennsylvania. It is in our nations best interest we have wellnourished communities that can thrive. That is why im here asking you to Work Together to pass a strong, bipartisan farm bill that ensures access to food. I often quote Martin Luther king jr. He said, lifes most persistent and urgent question is, what are you doing for others . With this farm bill we can do something. We can feed people together. Thank you. Mr. Whitford. Chairman fetterman, Ranking Member braun, committee members, thank you for allowing me to testify today. 23 years ago my wife and i started a small ministry in southwest missouri thats grown over the last two decades. Today we offer Emergency Shelter services. We have a Longterm Recovery Program for men focused on Character Development and work readiness. We have a Family Center that helps moms and kids struggling with homelessness. We even have a respite unit where folks that are coming out of the hospital discharge unit but dont have anywhere to go are able to go to our respite unit. We have a robust Food Ministry where were helping hundreds of families in our area with tens of thousands of pounds of foo every year. But i want to comeub kate today that i think is so important, the majority of needs met through our mission are earned by people. Through our workshop. People are crafting goods, creating things that go to market and theyre earning the basics of food, shelter and clothing and the like. Work awakens worth. Thats why we call it a worth shop. What we have found is youre at work or youre in dependency. Its one or the other. I dont know if youve heard of the book Toxic Charity but he talks about five steps to dependency. Give something to somebody once, they preebt it. Give it to them again theyll anticipate youll do it a third time. If you give ate third time theyre going to have an expectation that youll do it a fourth. If you give it a fourth time theyll feel entitled to it. A fifth time theyll be dependent on you for it. Depreciation, expectation, entitlement, dependency. I have seen that downward track for far too many people. And after more than 20 years of working among the poor and now working with leaders across the nation in various cities who are also fighting poverty im convinced that we are in a National Crisis of dependency. In fact, i would say that dependency is a national epidemic. Consider for just a moment that there are more people who are dependent on federal antipoverty programs than there are People Living in poverty. Just in the Food Stamp Program alone we have five Million People dependent on it who are above the poverty line. Not to mention that if we look at those below the poverty line, about 37 million americans, almost all of them are dependent on the government in some form or another. 96 . A Pew Charitable Foundation Study found about 76 of them will never escape. What that means is we have about 24. 8 million americans today who are on a trajectory to die in dependent poverty. Dependency is a national epidemic. Marvin olaski, in his book the tragedy of american compassion wrote aptly, he said dependency is merely slavery with a smiling mask. I believe f. D. R. Would have agreed. In his 1935 state of the Union Address he compared dependence on relief a a subtle market, a destroyer of the human spirit. I know a woman named jocelyn who lived it. For 10 years, more than that she was a needle drug addict living on the streets. Came into our mission. Came to faith in christ. Got clean. But she didnt give up her food stamps. It was a lot of work for to us convince her she had the ability to pride for herself. When she did finally voluntarily up her food stamp card, her trajectory change she went to college, got her masters, now she runs one of our shelters. You can imagine reporters were interested in doing a story. There before the camera, in an interview with a reporter she said it was harder for me to give up food stamps than it was for know give up heroin. Dependency is a form of slavery thats Holding Millions of americans back from living a flourishing life that god intended. And for jocelyn, her dignity, her freedom, the flourishing life she lived, it didnt through welfare or food stamps. It came through faith, friendships and work. Let me leave you with a last comment from a woman named selena who is also homeless. She said, i want to thank you for doing things the way you do them. Allowing me to work for my bed and my meals allowed me to feel like i can keep my dignity. For selena, its the same. She also will step into the flourishing life through faith, friendship and work. Thank you. Senator fetterman thank you. My name is whit it is ley hastings and im here to share how the Supplemental Nutrition Program has positively impacted the lives of me and my children. Thank you, senator fetterman, senator braun and others for having me here to testify. I want to thank my own senator, senator gillibrand, for continuing to champion programs to end hunger. Im the proud mother of a 7yearold daughter. Shes sweet, protective, hilarious and cautiously independent my 3yearold son is the opposite, grounded, generally likes to follow the rules and has an unlimited curiosity about everything. Theyre the center of my world. I do everything i can to be present and active in their lives. From going to gymnastics, hosting sleepovers to becoming Vice President of the ptso at our local school. I worked hard to model for my kids zivic and community duty. Im raying my children the way my mother raised me. She almost never missed a kay of work and made time to support four children through multiple activities and different schools. She had a modest salary but describes our upbringing as one flat tire away from eviction. We often dont see the sacrifices of our parents until we grow up and make them ourselves. With snap we were able to shop for better foods. I learned to shop on a limbed budge and still maximize the nutritional values of our meals. Working since the age of 13 i have created the independence that come craved the infence with making an honest income. Even in college, on scholarship, i worked two jobs. I have always been willing, able and ready to work. Im proud of my strong work ethic and Career Advancement but also know that much of what ive accomplished could not have been achieved without snap. In 2015, i obtained both snap and w. I. C. In my prenatal care in. Applying for both processes were difficult, the two applications being separate meant i missed work twice and lost wages to appear at d. H. S. At 8 00 a. M. To wait in line for hours and with among other families. Im grateful to the caseworkers who helped me navigate this process and i know they tried to make it as seamless as possible but i understand why some are too interim dayed to apply. Thats why i support senator gillibrands proposal to make it easier for eligible people to apply for multiple programs simultaneously online. Snap allowed us to eat better foods, eat less processed foods, i cook different recipes and i could use them to shop at local marks. It helped maximize my budget and helped prioritize fruit and vegetables through programs like double up food bucks. I was grateful to receive an increase in snap benefits during the pandemic. My son was born two months before the world turned upside down. It helped me keep the heat and lights on. Im a perfect example how legislation reduces poverty and hunger. During one of the largest economic collapses of our lifetimes. My life refutes the most common snap myth. Receiving benefits was never a deterrent to work. I continually worked or sought work while i received snap and thats true of most snap resip yens. A close friend of mine celebrated the achievement of financial achievement when she no longer qualified for snap and i can relate to that. If Congress Wants to reduce use of snap, raise the minimum wage, increase earned income tax credit, boost child care. I not only no longer need snap but i can pay it forward by helping my Community Access benefits as well. Every day i see how the end of the increased snap benefits has impacted many in my community. My hope is that this body raises snap benefits to help with costs for child care and food. Im happy that im now able to give my kids a bright future. I hope my story encourages you to strengthen snap in the farm bill. In my written testimony i will also include a few policy proposals supported by hunger free america and food link that would improve the lies of many in my neighborhood and in the nation. It remains a vital truth that medicine is food and should be regarded as such. Thank you again for this opportunity. Senator fetterman thank you very much. Thank all of you. Well now begin fiveminute rounds of questions for each member. I will begin my own. Mrs. Cox. Currently states allow snap mostly to do as they wish. Im concerned about proposals to limit this. My own state of pennsylvania has the ability to seek waivers on work requirements and times depending on employment metrics. This is this also includes tools that meant to ensure that lowwage working households avoid benefit cliff. Can you possibly explain the potential impact if these proposals would have on states . Ms. Cox thank you for the question. When we think about the waivers, i think while unemployment has come down across the country, there are still areas that have higher unemployment, so we can and states have the, you know, each state has experienced some crisis whether its a natural disaster, plant closing, some Community Conditions that have persistent high unemployment specifically like in native american communities. That means people cant find jobs where these waivers are needed. States can only request temporary waivers for arias with relatively high unemployment and the lack of sufficient jobs. States are really in the best position to ae valuate the needs of their communities. So thats why its critical to maintain state flexibility so they can respond to their communitys needs. Then on the other hand around flexibles for example, the asset limit, broadbased cat gorrical eligibility. A lot of states that have expanded the income limit, its basically for working families. Families who are just above the poverty line but because of high shelter or child care costs at the end of the day they meet the eligible for snap and theyre able to receive benefits. So taking that away, we saw when the Trump Administration sought to pursue these reforms tv going to estimate three million individuals would actually lose snap. When you look at income asset limits, so that mostly impacts older adults who have modest savings, so youd be asking them to not be able to have a savings in order to get snap. So that the states flexibility is super important. States are in a better fotion tell what they need in their state. Senator fetterman thank you, mrs. Cox. I have one more, kind of brief question. Many households had snap benefits stolen through skimming. Victims face a serious challenge of losing their purchase power. When debit cards are skimmed they are there are protections for the cardholder. What needs to be done to ensure families have the same kind of protection . Mrs. Cox theres been a lot of skimming over the last few years. Whats important is that snap parties pans have the same Consumer Protections everyone else has. If you have a debit or credit card you have protections for your purchases. The same should happen for e. B. T. Card users. I do appreciate the quick action of congress to restore stolen benefits, thats over the next year or so. But we really want to make sure that any new e. B. T. Protection and technology doesnt prevent participants from having access to their benefits. I dont know if theres one particular solution. There could be a few. Chip card technology, improving the detection and elimination of some skimming devices that are in stores, training retailers. But ultimately we want snap e. B. T. Cardholders to not be treated any differently than any other consumers in any less protections than other consumers. Senator fetterman mrs. Jones brown, food banks are critical for the support foundation of snap. Would you agree with that . Ms. Jones brown absolutely. Senator fetterman the Food Assistance program, tfap, was to provide assistance to lowincome individuals. These individuals may not qualify for snap but they might need Additional Support. Food banks like the one you work at, knowing the quality of the work you do in my own state, distribute 85 of tfa 36rbgs foods nationwide. As americans struggle with high food costs, how have you been able to allow you to continue to provide food support . Ms. Jones brown thank you for the question. The reality is food banks like ours, across pennsylvania, new jersey and across the country, we heavily rely on the government food programs that support farmers across this country that also end up supporting us, enabling us to ensure our neighbors get access to the food they need. Its often produce that folks are asking for. What weve seen over the last couple of years, as theres been challenges to food supply, food banks have found it harder and harder to get food from the private seconder. So government food becomes that much more important. We also saw in the early of the pandemic the government providing Additional Support enabled us to stave off a huge increase in Food Insecurity. Thats why today were calling on government to really increase the support for snap to ensure for tfap to ensure theres additional food support coming through to our state, to states, to our region and across the country. Senator fetterman thank you. I rk Ranking Member braun for five minutes. Senator braun thank you, mr. Chairman. We measure, i think, Food Insecurity by trying to get it below 10 . Weve not been able to do that. Families with children, without, its been 20 years. We spend more. There are more participants in it. That to me is something, when w. We got to have metrics that honestly say what is happening. Im disappointed that we havent been able to do more with it. Take about 45 seconds each, because ive got a second question, what are you seeing in the field . What are we doing wrong in congress . Because its stubbornly staying in a level where we cant get it down any lower. We have to recognize that we need to feed people in order to make sure that people can have upward mobility. We know cognitively if we dont have someones basic needs cared for they cant progress. But we havent stop there. Where we have to go next is making sure they have evidencebased programs to get them on a pathway out of povertism examples i mentioned like brings to success, goodwill excel center, Catholic Charities, those are proven by rigs you evidence that they work to give lowincome americans a pathway out of poverty so they, a few years from now, can be feeding their families and not needing snap benefits. Senator braun mr. Whitford . Mr. Whitford i think youre right, things have conned to increase. In 1969 if we looked a the average food stamp allotment with dollars equated to today it would be about 50. Now were talking like 230 or something per person. Its continued to increase, the numbers have conned to increase. I think really, going back to even something that mrs. Cox was saying about state flexibility, we do need to see more local control. Because truth be told, the people that are in my community, i know their needs much better than anyone else. And there are some folks who would benefit and do well just as mrs. Hayesy did and utilizing these benefits correctly. And there are some who do not. Im the one in my community and those like me who understand that. Theres a 100yearold adage. Intelligent giving and intelligent withholding are alike true charity. Sometimes its compassionate to say, no were not going to move in that direction. But right now snap, tfap, they tie your hands you dont have that ability. We need that ability. We need that local control so that communities can be effective in their charity work. Senator braun thank you. Ms. Reynolds, in your written testimony you share the story of three charitable organizations you have par for thed with, including the goodwill excel cent over central and Southern Indiana to study the effectiveness of holistic employment and training practices. In your testimony you also suggest that the usda should leverage studies like yours to help move snap recipients out of poverty. I plan to introduce the hand up act which would direct usda to maintain a clearinghouse for evidencebased practices for snap employment and training. Do you believe this clearinghouse would improve snaps success at connecting recipients with longterm employment and a path out of poverty . Ms. Reynolds final you and i walk into our Doctors Office and we are tbifn a pill to handle and ailment we deserve to make sure that pill has undergone a certain level of testing where we are protected. Right now in many cases, when a poor person walk into an organization to receive food theyre given food but then when they are given some sort of employment and training program, it doesnt have evidence mind it that it works. We need this we have to give people inpovertd one of the successful models for this has been mcviv as well as family first, where you have federal law requiring that people use or are creating the usage of evidence where it doesnt exist, paired with clearinghouses that are set up that are actionable to all of us who are in the provider space as well, it can make a tremendous difference. Sen. Braun thank you. Mr. Whitford, do you want to weigh in on how this might dovingtail with what youre doing . Mr. Whitford sure. I think again, measuring evidencebased practices is incredibly important. So outcomes are incredibly important to measure. Its important among private charities, its certainly going to be important among Government Programs and i think thats what weve got to look at. Not thinking that the efficacy of a program is dependent upon the number of people that are enrolled in it. But rather the efficacy of a program being how many people got off the rolls and ended up back into the work force. Sen. Braun thank you. In wrapping up on my end of the questioning, i think its important because whatever we do here in the federal government, youve got to have metrics. If it isnt producing the results, we all want the same end result. Youre going to have to look at maybe other ways of doing it. And id like to highlight to anyone listening out there, we currently are in peril because of everything we spend here in the federal government, just a little over four years ago when i got here, we were borrowing 20 cents on every dollar that we spend. Now its up to 30 cents. And thats going to put in peril all the good things we do. So sooner or later were going to have to figure out better ways of doing it and making sure were getting a better bang for our buck. Sen. Stabenow thank you very much, senator braun. And senator boozman, wonderful as always to see my partner here. And senator tpeterman, i thank you so much fetterman, i thank you so much for your leadership. We have a great team. Let me just echo what senator braun said in terms of evidencebased programs. I couldnt agree more. If thats what we do, we will get consensus, well get bipartisan support and keep it based on evidence, thats what we need to do. I also wanted to thank ms. Hasty, thank you so much for bringing a reallife perspective to what we are talking about and for your leadership and being a great role model for your children. Appreciate you very much. Our nutrition programs on the farm bill provide a modest but incredibly important support for americans who need to put food on their tables and i appreciate all of you being here today to be involved in this discussion. We know there are children and seniors and working families and veterans, people with disabilities who rely on programs like snap for an average of 6,000. 10 a day to buy healthy food. So 6. 10 a day is what we are talking about. Over 41 million vulnerable americans rely on these modest benefits and most of them are temporary, during tough times. I want to specifically address something that has been talked about a lot, particularly by house colleagues, house leadership, and say, news flash. Snap has work requirements. And as senator braun said, its been general work requirements in law since 1977. They were strengthened during president clintons time in 1996 as part of welfare reform. Time limits were added for adults without children, as we know. So that unless they are working 80 hours per month, to work now o in a job training program, that you can only receive three months of snap during three three years. Thats current law. Suspend under covid, just as we suspended other work requirements. Now coming back in july. So thats the basis from which we are operating. We have work requirements that have been supported on a bipartisan basis. The farm bill has always provided a safety net for our farmers and our families. Our farmers and our families. And i believe strongly that its critical that both safety nets continue. So, mrs. Cox, i have a question for you. The administration reevaluated the 2015y food plan thrifty food plan which is the basis of the snap benefit. Based on current food prices which we know have been going up, not down, consumption patterns, food, composition data, dietary guidelines, how much time we spend cooking from scratch, i dont even know if people know what that is anymore when you say that term. But this was required as part of the bipartisan 2018 farm bill. First comprehensive update since 1975. What is the impact of the reevaluation and why was this meaningful to do . Mrs. Cox thank you, senator stabenow, for that question. So the revision to the thrifty food plan which was a directive from the 2018 farm bill, it really served as a critical and muchneeded long overdue revision, right, as you said from 1975, it hadnt been reevaluated and we looked differently at how much time families have to purchase tpaopbd we also looked at dietary good lines differently now than we did in the 1970s. Looking at green vegetable, orange vegetables, whole grains, proteins and seafood. That was also used and taken into account. And as a result, you know, there was an increase. I think whats really important as you mentioned about the modest benefit amount, while its modest t a meaningful modest t a meaningful increase modest, it was a meaningful increase. It lists some 2. 4 Million People, including one Million People above poverty line. And it decreased Food Insecurity for tens of millions so. While we made a modest increase, although important, we really sd how we can lift people out of poverty by making that revision which was. Needed. Ms. Stabenow ms. Brown, i was wondering if you could talk about who you typically serve at your food bank and whether that population has changed over time. Mrs. Brown thank you very much for the question, senator. What we saw over the last few years is that more and more of our neighbors found themselves at the food network. Early in middle 2020 we saw 60 more people lining up to access food across our region and across the country as well and 40 of them were newly food insecure. So chances are somebody you know. If there was a restaurant you used to go to, if there was a service provider, Small Business owner, chances are for the first time in their lives they were accessing the charitable food network. So weve seen the face of hunger change in our country. We know that, as we saw from the usga study, that far too many families with children are food insecure. We know too many of our seniors and veterans are food insecure. Were also seeing more and more that working folks are. One of the last pantries i visited right before easter, i walked in and i saw someone there who i thought was maybe donating food, who was actually in full uniform and was shopping for free food at the pantry. And days before, his company had actually donated to the pant reufplt reality is that more and more were finding people that are working, that are just having a hard time make ends meet, particularly with the price of egg, theyre coming to the charitable food network. I would dare say everybody in this room knows somebody who at some point probably in the last year or two had to come to us to ask for help. Stab tab thank you very much. Thank you ms. Stabenow thank you very much. Thank you. Thanks kha chairman fetterman and Ranking Member braun for holding the hearing. Its interesting, i think right now the base of the farm bill is 1 dz. 5 trillion 1. 5 trillion. 1. 2 trillion has to do with Food Assistance. So this is something thats really very, very important and we appreciate you all being here and sharing your expertise. Ms. Hasty, thank you for sharing, as i said, your expertise, your experience, with snap and w. I. C. Today. Its always good to hear directly from those that have been impacted by these programs. Im also glad to hear that snap helped you and your family bridge the gap which is really what this is all about. Helped you advance in your career. Thats exactly what the program is meant to do. Mr. Boozman in your time working toward your sen. Boozman in your time working toward your current career, what were most important things that helped you move from making ends meet to stable employment . What as expects of the program were helpful aspects of the program were helpful and maybe some areas that werent so helpful . Ms. Hasty thank you for the question and thanks again for allowing me to speak. Like i said in my testimony, i think one of the barriers would be the application process. I mean, having to take time off of work, losing wages to appear and then if its easier for me to leave my children at home, paying someone to watch my children while i go and stand in line for a long time and apply. I mean, it was everyone was really helpful in that process. But that was a difficulty. I think as anyone will tell you, receiving snap is also living with the stigma of being labeled as someone who has failed. So that was not an easy aspect of it. But im proud of the fact that i was able to support my family with the help of snap. I think every time i earned like a higher wage i was i could look back and reflect and see that i could attribute that to the way in which it helped me stretch my budget and keep paying my bills and not have to continue to pay late rent fees and stuff like that. Its been progressive. But, yeah. Sen. Boozman the other thing too i wanted to ask you about, you touched on it, you know, youve been an ambassador at the curbside market and truly have firsthand experience in reaching those who maybe in need of assistance, w. I. C. And snap. You mentioned the paperwork. What are there other barriers that youre finding so that we can capture those folks that do need help that havent signed up for w. I. C. Or snap . Ms. Hasty barriers to sen. Boozman to their participation . In other words, the participation is really under. Ms. Hasty so although w. I. C. Is not part of the farm bill, but my experiences in helping people access benefits to w. I. C. , i know that there are barriers to participation in a lot of the in both of those programs. But particularly in the communities that i served, individuals that i try to help, barriers would be im sorry. The application process, im sorry. And sen. Boozman well, i suppose so. The other aspect would be, you know, the fact that you are out telling people that it actually exists. Its hard for us to understand probably that there are people that dont really know whats going on and that the programs available. Ms. Hasty right. Again, in my experience i work right now with helping people access w. I. C. I know its not part of the farm bill. But sen. Boozman very good. Ms. Hasty sorry. Sen. Boozman no, thank you. Real quickly, ms. Reynolds. You emphasized the need to scale up programs, evidencebased programs like bridges to success, goodwill x. L. Certainty. What are the barriers to expanding these programs in other regions while also keeping in mind that one size doesnt fit all . How do you think these types of programs might work in our rural areas that are desperately in need . Ms. Reynolds yeah, thank you for your question. As a fellow arkansan, i appreciate the rural nod as well. The first thing i would say is that most there was a tremendous amount of evidence around individualized Case Management that is holistically focused on the family. What that allows to have happen is the path forward isnt just, this is what you need and everybody gets this. But the path forward often is understanding each family, where theyre at, understanding what their today needs are, what their tomorrow needs are and maybe their needs a year from now, and doing life with them for a longer period of time. To get them into upward mobility, the living wage income, those sorts of things. So what we have found is that these solutions, like goodwill x. L. Center, like Catholic Charities fort worth, theyre showing shraoubgs solutions that are Case Management paired with flexible Financial Assistance plus Wraparound Services and they tend to be very then customized within that for getting to an upward mobility. Sen. Boozman thank you. Sen. Fetterman thank you, senator. Now i recognize senator klobuchar for five minutes. Sen. Klobuchar thank you very much, chair fetterman. Thank you for holding this very important hearing. Ms. Brown, during the full Committee Hearing on nutrition, i asked undersecretary dean about her experience at a minnesota snap employment and train site and she spoke very positively about our model and even suggested it could be good to bring out to the rest of the country. I understand youre also familiar with the collaborative work were doing between federal, state and local. Can you talk about in more detail how this kind of Program Helps participants overcome barriers to employment . Mrs. Brown absolutely. Thank you for the question, senator. At fill abundance, we operate a Community Kitchen thats supported by snap employment and Training Programs so everyone, theyre all adults, theyre all either on snap or eligible for snap. Its a free 16week program. We have very positive results. People in the Graduation Rates have been getsing jobs. What we talk about is we teach people what we say, both night skills and life skills. These are very limited low barriers to entry. People have been through the criminal Justice System or in some cases had a health issue, had an injury and had to change opportunities or change trajectories. Through this program we also have a catering operation production like other catalyst kitchens across the country and what we found is that our participants are learning not just to cook, theyre also learning about nutrition and theyre also providing meals, muchneeded meals, healthy meals to people who are food insecure across the region. Sen. Klobuchar very good. Second question, food banks in minnesota like second harvest, heartland, which has seen a 40 reduction, about seven million fewer poundses in federal commodities in the last year, its very important that, as you know, the Program Remains responsive to access, supply and increased demand were seeing in part because of prices to purchase bonus commodities at times of high need for emergency food relief. Mrs. Brown, in addition to times of low commodity prices, goes either way. Could you speak to the importance of the usda regular spending and c. C. C. Purchases and their role in ensuring our food banks have consistent access to food . Mrs. Brown thank you for the question. Your absolutely right. Its critically important for us to be able to meet the need of our neighbors, that we have access to government foods. Weve seen that decrease and were seeing it decrease now. In the last two years we received about 19 Million Pounds of food from government that we were able to get out into our neighborhoods to ensure that our neighbors had access to fresh, healthy food, primarily produce, which is really helpful for ensuring that theyre healthy and providing nutritious food to them. This calendar year alone it looks like we are on track to get maybe five Million Pounds. At the same time were trying to purchase additional food, with the economy being what it is and costing us more. So really are the tfab programs are a lifeline for us to ensure our neighbors have access to food. Sen. Klobuchar very good. Thank you. Last question. Mrs. Cox, as you know, the 2018 farm bill authorized the healthy fluid, milk incentives pilot. To encourage the consumption of milk. Which we all know is part of a wellrounded diet. The hfmi pilot builds on the success of previous incentive programs which have been shown to positively impact purchasing decisions. With such a high demand for additional nutrientrich Dairy Products like yogurt and cheese, what opportunities exist to expand the reach of the program to include more Dairy Products nationwide . Mrs. Cox thanks for the question, senator. So, yeah, the program which in the last farm bill actually did receive an increase, thats one of the pretty much one of the strongest programs that we will be able to use or we can access for participants to have access, to fresh fruits and vegetables, to Healthy Foods, as well as milk. While the healthy i will have to probably get back you to a little bit on the healthy fluid because i dont think we know as much about that. But i do know enough that there was more money placed in it in the last farm bill and thats really the place where were seeing a lot of results. Were seeing the double up bucks prafpl and the place where people are able to access fresh fruits and vegetables, even at farmers markets. Sen. Fetterman thank you, senator. We now recognize senator booker for five minutes. Sen. Booker thanks so much, mr. Chairman. Thank you. Im really grateful to be here and i loved the testimony that we heard today. I just want to say very clearly, first and foremost, its important that we protect snap. I think im one of the small handful of senators that live in a very lowincome neighborhood and i see every day the profound difference that snap makes in the lives of people who are working hard, who are struggling to make it. We live in a country where just finding housing, you have to make more than twice the minimum wage in my state to be able to afford your housing needs. And we are seeing in my communities across new jersey how snap is a powerful program that needs to be protected and, frankly, needs to be expanded. I think in the United States of america is outrageous that people who have drug convictions cant get snap. People who have admitted doing the same things that president s have now said theyve done, senators have said theyve done, so privileged folks who dont get Drug Enforcement like we see in communities like mine, dont lose their federal eligibility for a lot of things. We believe in redemption in this country, but yet we hold people time and time again who are formerly incarcerated to higher levels than reflects that spirit and value. There are places like puerto rico, each and every one of those people are americans. And they should have the same access to vital programs like this. We are facing in this country also not just a hunger crisis, but a nutrition crisis. We have an explosion of dietrelated diseases and we know that if we want to try to save costs in this country, one out of every three government dollars right now is being spent on health caroline. And the overwhelming health care. And the overwhelm magazine jotter of that is dietrelated diseases. So what were see something programs that i believe need to be expanded like gusnet, for example, are actually getting people off of their prescription drugs. We have an urban farm in the south ward of newark, new jersey, that i was there filming the documentary, food inc2 and you had people volunteering, coming up, talking about how they had hundreds and hundreds of dollars worth of prescription drugs, their copay was 100, one woman was telling me, but over 700, that she was off of her prescription drugs when she started getting access to fresh, healthy food. So i love, ms. Reynolds, the evidencebased. We know what works in communities. But were putting up artificial barriers as was being said by ms. Hasty, making it really difficult for the people we need. These are our children. Mrs. Cox, you said it so well. Nutritious, healthy diets help people in their Brain Development years. Not access to healthy, fresh foods actually undermines Brain Development. So snap is great, it needs to become a nutrition program. Thats what one of the letters in snap stands for. And i believe we need to do a lot more. Making quality, diet quality and nutrition the core of snap objectives, scaling up programs in the little bit of time i have left, i just would like to say, can we talk about the challenges that are being faced by people at fill abundance in getting access to those fresh, Healthy Foods that are vital to the strength of our families and the potential competitiveness of them for the longterm . Mrs. Brown thank you very much, senator, for the question. We absolutely agree with you. Its why in your state and in pennsylvania, weve actually challenged ourselves, we put out what we call our good food policy. Were holding ourselves accountable to distribute even more nutritious food. Interestingly, Research Tells Us thats what our neighbors want and what they need. Now, obviously in those communities that we serve, there is a dearth of Grocery Stores and sometimes farmers markets. And thats why we want to make sure we are through programs getting more access to more produce that were getting out to folks. Interestingly, its what people are asking for. Each and every time i talk to a neighbor in need, theyre asking me for produce. They want fresh fruits and vegetables. Theres a myth that people dont want that so people are asking for collared greens or Sweet Potatoes or carrots. Its tempting to provide that. We also in addition to providing the free food to folks, we also are working with a number of partnerships with Grocery Stores and health care, were providing healthy meals, medically tailored meal, and then working with Grocery Stores to see if theres other ways we can get people access to benefits like snap while also getting the access to the food that they need. Sen. Booker excellent. My time is out but i want to ask one last question. One out of every three women incarcerated on the planet earth is in the United States of america. Were the land of the free but we incarcerate women, overwhelmingly women who have been survivors of sexual violence, sexual trauma. 95 to 98 of them coming home, theyve got children that theyve been separated from, that often end up in multiple different foster homes. And we know, again, evidencebased, that when you do things to strengthen the connection with their children, they have lower recidivism rates and theyre more successful. How does it make sense, and again, im a man of faith so i believe in the prodigal story of the prodigal child, but how does it make sense in our society that we take that woman, a survivor of sexual trauma, overincarcerated with mandatory minimums for crimes, again, that many privileged people do every day and then when they come home and theyre trying to reconnect with their children, we deny them the basic benefit to get access to fresh, Healthy Foods. Does that make any sense from not just a policy perspective, or a moral perspective, but does it make sense from an Economic Perspective at all . Mrs. Brown it doesnt. One of the things we found is that when we provide people with Additional Support like snap, with the snap, i think in pennsylvania that meant 200 million each month additionally going into Grocery Stores. So even if you think about the Economic Impact of these programs, the reality is that for every 1 were investing in snap, 1. 50 or . 80 is coming back into our communities 1. 80 is coming back into our communities. Sen. Booker we found with the Child Tax Credit, data shows it increased Work Force Participation for the women. The snap for a woman getting eligibility for that empowered them to be successful earners. Mrs. Brown i think thats right. I think the reality is, i appreciate the moral issue. I too am a person of faith and really feel honor and privileged that we get to do this work every day and that i fully believe weve learned a lot of lessons over the last several years. I appreciate your leadership and senator braun, the white house conference on hunger, nutrition and health. I believe we can solve hunger. I believe that we can take what works and weve seen a lot of things that are working across this country, seen government work, and i think the reality is we have so much in this country we can ensure that our neighbors have what they need to thrive. Sen. Booker thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, thanks for the indulgence. Sen. Fetterman thank you, senator. And now . I recognize senator gillibrand for five minutes. Sen. Gillibrand thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, senator booker, for your commitment to such an important issue. Id like to give the floor to ms. Hasty a bit. I would like to hear a little bit about more your story. What work you were doing at the time, what work you were looking for. Did snap improve your job security, did it improve your economic selfsufficiency . Did you ever feel that snap created a cycle of benefit dependency and what recommendations would you make to improve the snap program . Ms. Hasty thank you. So in addition to raising my children during the time that i received snap, i was consistently working an average of 34 hours a week and at that time, when i was able to work, and the last fulltime job i held while receiving snap actually mandating had phapbdztory overtime had mandatory overtime. So i had full time jobs and simultaneous parttime jobs but i had a total of five different employers. So a variety of work. Without it i wouldnt have been able to pay my rent or i would have been late. And we didnt miss a meal, we worked hard or i worked hard or my kids played harder and snap has helped me to earn more i think each time that i, you know, advanced in my career. In terms of cycle of dependencey, i think thats common language but it feels like a deflection from the real economic problems that were facing. I always sought to strengthen my skills and grow professionally. So i know what it feels like, like i mentioned before, to kind of feel like youve done something wrong to be accepting or to have that type of help. Even in the grocery line, using your snap card or using your w. I. C. Card, holding up the line, thats a real reality, i wonder how many people in this room are watching, have ever woken up and drank a bottle of water to make themselves feel full until they knew they were going eat that one time at the kitchen that they worked at. Because ive had to do that before. The truth is snap and other programs designed to alleviate poverty and hunger are truth that we all deserve living that lets us live healthier and happier. So we know that snap works. It needs to be expanded. I never thought that it was going to be permanent. And even when i didnt understand the definition of what an enentitlement program was, i understood that the more that my income increased, the less snap benefits i got, and the reason i was happy about that is because i was like i said, its almost celebrated when youre no longer receiving benefits. And i was really proud to start earning a salary that exceeded those income limits. So i think improvements to snap would obviously be streamlining application processes so that it makes it easier for people. Better communication about what the program entails and who sell simply for it and who is eligible for it and not imposing the extra work requirements, i suppose, or work reporting requirements. And allowing people to have a more diverse purchasing power with the things that they can purchase with it. Online retailers, farmers markets, and theres more detail about that in the written testimony that ive prepared. Sen. Gillibrand thank you. Ms. Hasty, the snap benefit today is only 6. 10 a day. Obviously you cant feed yourself and two kids on that. So talk to me a little bit about how snap supplemented what you were able to buy from your income and from your earnings and what difference snap actually made to being able to buy more Healthy Foods for your children and yourself. Ms. Hasty so its obviously a supplemental program. We know that its not meant to be your entire food budget every month. I think the difference with and without snap, if you kind of picture going to the Grocery Store without snap, you have to think about how much money should be left so that utility bill could be paid. So without snap, you might only purchase bread, milk and eggs because you know that you can eat those things for the rest of the week. But with snap, it kinds of gives you more flexibility. You can buy fruits and vegetables and have raw fruits and vegetables in your house and not just have the basic staples. So it just gives you more you can focus more on the nutrition instead of just kind of making these impossible choices. Sen. Gillibrand thank you. And just last, for mrs. Jones, can you talk a little bit about students who need access to snap and also the importance of making sure that we move Puerto Ricans from nap to snap . Mrs. Cox thank you very much for the question. What we see, we do our work at our food banks and the food banks like ours across the country with agency partners. So those are church, mosques, synagogue, schools, Community Service organizations that ends up distributing the food. The reality is in our network we have a number of colleges and universities that are also that also have food pantries . Senator bookers district we opened a food pantry at rut gathers couple years ago. The reality is we have rutgers a couple years ago. The reality is we have College Students who are trying to get a great job, theyre also food and housing insure. Were able to support them through food banks like ours. [indiscernible] mrs. Brown i did not. We partnered with them. Through the usga, were in the same region. Theyre one of our partners in this work. They are particulate of our network of 200 food banks so were able to share best practices about ways we can ensure that our neighbors have access to the food that they need, not just in the u. S. But also in puerto rico. Sen. Gillibrand thank you. [indiscernible] [laughter] sen. Fetterman thank you, senator. I now recognize senator warnock for five minutes. Sen. Warnock thank you so very much, mr. Chair. It is greet see you back. During the Pandemic Congress provided an emergency boost to Food Assistance programs, called emergency snap allotments. This boost ended in a number of states last month but my own state of georgia and many other states already ended this increase months ago. And after this emergency Food Assistance was cut off in georgia, the Atlanta Community food bank, which works very closely with my church, saw visits increase by about 34 . 34 . When compared to the same period the previous year. I visited the atlanta food bank. Ive spent time with the volunteers and the workers over at feed the hungry and homeless, the work that they do. And ive seen those lines get longer as our policies got harsher. Food banks work hard to be a safety net for our federal nutrition programs but theyre struggling to keep up with increasing need. How would further cutting federal nutrition programs affect our food banks . Thank you very much for the question. As you saw with my counterpart in atlanta, across the country we have seen an increase. We saw an increase obviously early on in covid in 2020, but then we also saw an increase with gas prices and inflation for food over the last year. So we just had that the emergency allotments go away there our states and so were anticipating increased need. But weve seen 30 , 50 , even twice as many people at the charitable food network. We have a number of churches that are part of our network as well. In fact, one of our churches is a church i attend where i believe that you were recently. Mrs. Brown and we really could not do this work without our partners. Were here today asking for a bipartisan bill which really asks government to partner with us. We are absolutely willing to raise the funds, get private donations, and leverage the thousands and thousandsle of volunteers we have across the country. We really need Government Support. We need Government Support to do what works. We saw what works. We saw how emergency allotments over the past couple of years helped our communities so were asking for those kinds of supports. Sen. Warnock so you dont have the bandwidth to fill in the gap . Mrs. Brown we do not. We really do need help. So we got we saw Additional Supports, millions of more pounds of food came to our food banks across the country during covid. And with that being pulled back, were really concerned about how were going to fill that. In the same way that everyday people are seeing prices go up in the Grocery Store, its costing us more and more to purchase and transport food for our neighbors in need. Sen. Warnock on top of that, some of my colleagues are talking about rolling back the thrifty food plan update. Which increased food benefits by less than 2 per day. But is expected to help keep one million children above the poverty line. Seems to me that we cant go backwards in this farm bill and ill be doing everything i can to expand and protect federal nutrition benefits and the time that i still have, currently nondisabled adults without dependents are only eligible for snap for three months out of every three years, unless they work 80 hours per month. I believe the vast majority of snap recipients who are able to work do so. But we need to bear in mind that most snap recipients are children. Elderly or disabled. Some of my colleagues in the house and also in the senate have talked about expanding existing work requirements for snap. Mrs. Cox, can you tells but these proposals can you tell us about the proposals and what the Research Says about existing work requirements already if place, including whether they increase Work Force Participation . Mrs. Cox thank you, senator warnock, for the question. Studies consistently demonstrate that taking benefits away from people who are not working or not meeting a work requirement does little to improve their longterm Employment Outcomes. Especially those with limited employment opportunities. Instead it increases hardship, including among people who are not even expected to work like children and people with disabilities. There was a recent peerreview paper that showed that snaps time limit reduced those participating with no effect on employment. There was another recent paper about no evidence of improved employment earnings, but it did find that snap participation was cut by 7 to 32 percent a year after the time limit was reinstated. So theres been consistent studies showing it doesnt have an impact on earnings. It just takes away food. Sen. Warnock takes away food from hungry people . Mrs. Cox exactly. And you cant work if youre hungry. Sen. Warnock right. Thank you so much. I hope well keep this in mind. Keep the research and the actual data in mind as we write this years farm bill. Sen. Fetterman thank you, senator. We now recognize senator marshall for five minutes. Sen. Marshall thank you, mr. Chairman. I appreciate all of our witnesses hanging through this lunch hour. I dont know about you, but i grew up every lunch in school that we got to drink whole milk. I would get two cartons of whole milk and i hope that you all would support me how important milk and the milk products are to the programs that you run. So just bear with me a moment here. So good. So lets start with dr. Whitford. My first question should be how is coach self doing . But i assume you dont have any exact knowledge, but ill be glad to let you know that i did speak to the chancellor yesterday and coach self is healing up very nicely and will be ready for next years basketball season. You run the watered gardens minutes industry. And i would just like to hear a little bit more about that. What is your mantra . What drives you to do it . Tell me about the success of it and whats that feelgood moment for you . Mr. Whitford thank you, senator. There are many feelgood moments in this kind of work that we do. But certainly seeing people freed from poverty is the number one thing that were excited to see. And right now were seeing a lot of folks who are really struggling in chronic homelessness. A lot of Mental Health issues. Addiction issues and these types of things. So we have a very Robust Program where were sitting down and getting to know people, very relational in nature, setting goals with them, and helping them up and out of poverty. We measure a lot. I think its important that charities like mine are outcomedriven and really doing a good job of measuring Key Performance indicators and we do that. Interestingly before the pandemic, we were seeing about 63 of folks who would come into our shelter with no job at all leave with a job. And over the last couple of years thats changed. So now were really struggling to see people get back into the work force. Were a little below 40 at this point of folks coming in to shelter and then not leaving with a job. So what we track as successful exits out of our shelter have been dropping. Sen. Marshall how come . What are the barriers . Mr. Whitford theres so much government largesse thats pouring into our communities. Its not just mine. I have 11 pages of testimony from leaders across the United States that are fighting poverty that really are seeing perverse intendtifics from the amount of incentives from the amount of government help thats coming into the community, but its not help thats able to discern. Its not a help thats investigative in nature. The very things were doing with people on the ground in our own community Government Programs are not able to do that kind of work and so it create aspr verse incentive that a perverse incentive that draws people toward it rather than toward the challenging developmental programs that are going to help them up and out of poverty. Sen. Marshall coming from the midwest, i think a work ethic is part of our d. N. A. Its part of the values that i was raised on. Youre in joplin, missouri. Ill still call missouri the midwest. Even though you struggle with your Basketball Team over there. Tell me, do you still see that work ethic as a value that most of the people come into your facility with, that they want to get a job . Or where are they on the work part of this . Mr. Whitford no, no. Im seeing a lot of people coming in that dont have any intention or desire to work. There is an entitlement men that mentality thats per vasive pervasive in our nation. We have to be great sources of inspiration and to provide relational accountability. In order to help people realize that they are created in the image of god, created in the image of a maker and are therefore built and intended to make, to produce and to contribute, not be stuck on the receiving end of someones benevolence. Sen. Marshall the longterm success, and you can define success how you want to, the folks that have a job, do they seem to be more fulfilled, do they have purpose in life . Are they bouncing back sooner . Mr. Whitford absolutely. This is what we find, this is why we do work first. So you come into our mission and we want to employ you right off the bat. Because we dont just see a person who is disabled or a person who is lacking or lacking capacity, but people who have ability and capacity and potential. And when we start with employment, it begins to energize them because were built for that. And so thats what leads to better successful more successful outcomes. But again, its a fight. Theres a great tension in what were trying to do and i think some of the larger, more bureaucratic forms of help coming into our community. Sen. Marshall great. My times wound down. We appreciate all the witnesses coming today. Mr. Chairman, ill yield back. Sen. Fetterman thank you, senator. I now recognize the senator for five minutes. Thank you. Thank you for having me today. Im not on the committee but i know how important this is. Sen. Fetterman i thank you so much, senator. Thank you. Senator marshall, my mom is proud of you for drinking that milk. Sen. Marshall thank you. Tell your mom hey. I will. Ill tell her. Shes probably the only person thats not true. I was going to say, the only person watching this but thats not true. [laughter] shes not actually. Shes not watching it because she didnt know what youd be doing. I just want to come by because before i was in this job, i was the superintendent of the Denver Public schools. Sen. Bennet the vast in a jotter of kids there were living in majority of kids there were living in poverty, they still are. The problem there was not that people didnt work. The problem was people were working two and three jobs and no matter what they did, they couldnt get their kids out of poverty. And thats whats happening all over america. In a country where, you know, we are the richest country in the world, mr. Chairman. Its true. And we have the worst income inequality that weve had since the 1920s in this country. We have the lowest economic mobility that weve had in generations and lower economic mobility, im sad to say this, than many other industrialized countries in the world that we compare ourselves to. And do i think theres some people that dont work . If given the opportunity to work . Probably. But i think whats much more likely the case based on the parents of the families that i have worked with is that people are working. People are killing themselves. Theyre not just working, their kids are working. When youre in a familys house and you go you know, youre the superintendent and you show up, and i did show up under these circumstances, when kids werent going to school, you know, on a morningafter and youd say on a morning they missed school and id say, why you have missed school . They said, because i was working until 12 00 last night at mcdonalds down the street. We dont have the sense to give kids in this country the opportunity to go to school whether it makes sense for them. We have a onesizefitsall approach to Public Education that makes it hard, i think, for kids, for working families to work in the ways that they want to work and be able to support their kids. I know mrs. Cox knows we spent a lot of time working on the Child Tax Credit years ago to cut childhood poverty in this country, almost in half. Which we did, when the Biden Administration came in, we cut childhood poverty by 50 . Most significant reduction in childhood poverty in american history. We reduced hunger in the United States by 30 and we didnt add a single bureaucrat to the federal government to do it. It wasnt a bureaucratic program. It was just putting money in the hands of families to be able to spend them as ms. Hasty was talking about, in the best interest of their kids. You said that they could buy a little bit of extra relief at the end of the month when theyre paying their rent, where theyre paying their light bill, when theyre paying for their food or for School Clothes in the case of kids that i represent in colorado whose parents were saying, this is the first time that weve actually been able to provide school kids School Clothes for our kids. So from ply point of view, you from my point of view, you know, we are living in the richest country in the world and our level of childhood poverty is criminal. Its inexcusable. Its immoral. Its uncentral. And i think we should unacceptable. And i think we should end it. I think cutting it in half was a good start and im very sad that came to an end. It worked. It did what we said we were going to do. For me, im not talking about people over on this side of the aisle, im talking about in the other house of congress, to see people who blew up this deficit so that the wealthiest people in america could have tax cuts when we have the worst income inequality since the 1920s, that makes no sense to me. Thats a handout that makes no sense to me. When we have a solution for the childhood poverty that we are facing. And the idea that wed be threatening to blow up our Credit Rating over the School Lunch Program or over snap doesnt make any sense to me. So, mrs. Cox, with my last 22 seconds, sorry to go on for long is, but you know, to the families in colorado and to the i guess what id say, just two things. One, is it true that there are no work requirements when it comes to snap . And two, whats it going mean to families, 2 3 of the folks that get snap are living in families with children in colorado, whats it going mean to those children if we cut these programs the way these folks have been talking about . Mrs. Cox real quick. So, no, it is not true that there arent current work requirements in snap. There are. Weve been talking about them. Theres a threemonth time limit for individuals not working out of three years. So there is a work requirement and the second, the proposal that was placed by representative johnson, for colorado in specific, it would be 115,000 snap participants in householdses that would be at risk of losing snap. So if were looking at those households with children 7 and below or were looking at were going from age 50 to 64. So its a lot of people in colorado that would be at risk of losing benefits. Sen. Bennet i flow my time is up and im done know my time is up and im done. What i saw when the enhanced Child Tax Credit went away was food pantries just go up like this. Skyrocket like this. I think were going to see the same thing here. I dont know if you had a benefit of the Child Tax Credit or not. Would you mind saying a word about that . Then ill stop. Ms. Hasty in terms of bullpen just what that enhanced im sorry to surprise you. What that extra money meant in terms of the Child Tax Credit during covid. Ms. Hasty the extra Child Tax Credit, i mean, me personally, in my own experience, allowed me to pay back rent. So it was extremely helpful. Like i said in my testimony, its not an unfamiliar story that it helped just take a huge weight off my shoulders. Sen. Bennet thats what families say to me. Is that the stress, the stress, the stress is what it relieved. Mr. Chairman, i yield back. Thank you. And i apologize to my colleague for going over. Sen. Fetterman thank you, senator. And especially thank to every one of you, the Witnesses Today, that came in, to hear from you all today. So thank you. You know, protecting snap and preventing fraud isnt a republican or democrats issue, though. I think everyone agrees on that. Its time for the usda to and state agencies to update their Technology Security to prevent fraud. I hope i would hope we all agree. I intend to strengthen the usdas tools to existing mandate to do so. The usda is already making significant efforts to modernize snap and its nutritional assistance. One of these efforts are updating the thrifty food plan which we have discussed today. This update is a modest investment with a Significant Impact for working americans who need it. We have to work to protect snap for the 21st century and i look forward to working with my colleagues to getting that done. I heard from one respondent during this hearing that those who use snap do not want to use it forever. I have never met any american that they, hoping that they can stay on snap for their whole lives. Not at all. No one does. They are only on it because they need it. Snap is a program to help individuals like ms. Hasty and the people like mrs. Jones and brown and mrs. Reynolds that work ms. Reynolds that work with, it all helps americans who fall on hard times. And ill end with this. We need to pass a farm bill that works for everyday americans. The record will remain open for five more days. And now this hearing is adjourned. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2023] thank you so much for coming today. All right, thank you. [ indiscernible conversation]