Honoring and saluting golf legend Juan Antonio "Chi Chi" Rodriguez for his commitment to Latino youth programs of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.

Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 1742 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Lincoln Diaz-Balart). All time yielded during consideration of the rule is for debate only.

General Leave

I ask unanimous consent that all Members be given 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on House Resolution 1742.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

H. Res. 1742 provides a closed rule for consideration of S. 3307, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. The rule provides 1 hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Education and Labor.

The rules waives all points of order against consideration of the bill except those arising under clause 9 of rule XXI. The rule provides that the bill shall be considered as read. The rule waives all points of order against provisions of the bill. Finally, the rule provides one motion to recommit the bill with or without instructions.

Mr. Speaker, before I begin, as many of my colleagues know, my colleague from Florida (Mr. Lincoln Diaz-Balart) has decided not to seek reelection and move on to other endeavors in his home State of Florida. I just want to publicly thank him for his friendship over the years, and also thank him for his great service not only to the people of Florida but to the people of this country. This may be the last rule that we handle together, so I wanted to take this opportunity simply to acknowledge his service and to thank him.

Mr. Speaker, we have the opportunity today to pass a very good bill that will improve the lives of our children. And I believe that we must seize that opportunity.

I want to thank Speaker Pelosi and Chairman Miller, Congresswoman DeLauro, Congresswoman McCarthy, and others who have worked so hard on this issue. And I want to say a special thank you to First Lady Michelle Obama. She has been an incredible champion for our children, particularly in the areas of nutrition and obesity.

She has challenged us to live up to one of our highest moral obligations--to make sure that the children of this Nation have the nutritious food they need to grow, to thrive, and to succeed.

Mr. Speaker, as many of my colleagues know, I chair both the House Hunger Caucus and the Congressional Hunger Center, and I've said many times that hunger is a political condition. We have the resources to end hunger, particularly childhood hunger, and what we need is the political will to make it happen.

President Obama has pledged to end childhood hunger in America by 2015. If we support that goal, then we must pass this bill. I hope that the Members of this House, all of us, Democrats and Republicans, can come together today to summon the political will necessary to move forward on this issue.

There is not a single community in America that is hunger free. Talk to any food bank. They will tell you that the demand has never been greater, and far too many of the people who need help are children.

The child nutrition bill that we will take up today gives us a chance to provide healthy meals to hundreds of thousands of children who need them. It's also important to remember that hunger and obesity are two sides of the same coin. The fact is that highly processed, empty calorie foods are less expensive than fresh, nutritious foods. That's why so many families are forced to make unhealthy choices. This bill increases the reimbursement to schools for meals by 6 cents a meal, 6 cents, and that's the first increase in 30 years.

Too often, the only nutritious food our kids get is in a school setting, and this bill also increases access to after-school programs. And the bill helps communities to establish farm-to-school networks, which are not just good for children, but they're also good for our local farmers.

Now, it's no secret, Mr. Speaker, that I've had concerns with how this bill is paid for, and I remind my colleagues that this bill is fully paid for. The cuts to the SNAP, or food stamp, program don't make a lot of sense to me. I don't believe we should be taking access to food away from some people in order to provide it for others. But we have been assured, repeatedly, by the President and the White House that they will work with us to restore these cuts, and I look forward to working with the administration and my colleagues to make sure that the White House lives up to that commitment. Quite frankly, if I did not believe that this commitment to restore SNAP funding was real, I would have had a hard time voting for the underlying legislation.

Mr. Speaker, this bill, this exact same piece of legislation, passed unanimously in the Senate. Every single Member in the Senate, including a Who's Who of the most conservative Republicans, voted for reauthorizing our child nutrition programs. Unfortunately, from what I heard in the Rules Committee last night, that probably won't happen today in the House.

Some of my friends on the other side of the aisle have no problem expanding wasteful weapons systems. They have no problem expanding tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires on Wall Street, but apparently, some of them have a problem with expanding access to nutritious food for our children.

They say it's an outrageous example of Big Government or that a high school basketball team would be prohibited from having a bake sale. Nonsense. Utter nonsense. As the president of the national PTA has said, ``The measure will effectively eliminate the constant presence of junk food in school while allowing reasonable practices like periodic PTA or other school group fundraisers, such as bake sales, and the sale of hot dogs and sodas at after-school sporting events.''

An extra few million for a hedge fund manager who doesn't need it? No problem, so my Republican friends say, but heaven forbid we spend another 6 cents to make sure our kids have a more healthy school lunch. Those may be their priorities, Mr. Speaker, but they're not mine, and they're not the priorities of the people in my district.

Some of my friends on the other side will say that they want no children in our country to go hungry. Fair enough. Here's their opportunity to put their vote where their rhetoric is. Here's their opportunity to demonstrate that their concern for the hungry in this country is more than just lip service.

Mr. Speaker, I understand the politics here. It's pretty simple. If the President's for it, my Republican friends are against it. But I would ask them and I would plead with them to check those politics at the door just this once. Please don't sacrifice an opportunity to improve the lives of millions of our children on the altar of partisan politics.

The need to act is clear. Our moral obligation is clear. Our children are getting sicker and sicker and sicker. If kids don't have enough nutritious food to eat they don't learn. We are wasting millions and millions of dollars on health care for diseases like diabetes and heart disease that are preventable with healthier diets.

Today, we could begin to turn that tide. Please join us in doing the right thing. I urge my colleagues to support this rule and the underlying bill.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Let me just respond to my colleague briefly by saying, when he talks about borrowing, I can't help but be reminded of the fact that my friends on the other side of the aisle have borrowed countless billions of dollars to pay for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. They have no problem with doing that. They have no problem with borrowing money to pay for wars. That all goes onto our credit card. They have no problem with that.

Mr. Speaker, what we are doing here is improving the quality of nutritious food that our kids will have access to. In doing so, we accomplish a number of things.

One is we end up with healthier kids who, quite frankly, will grow up to be healthier adults, which--guess what?--will cost less to our public systems. We are ensuring when our kids get healthy meals that they can learn better in school. I don't think there is any debate-- maybe there is on that side of the aisle--about the fact that there is a tie between kids' ability to concentrate and learn and having adequate food and having healthy food.

So I would say to my colleague Mr. Diaz-Balart, we are paying for it, and I know we are paying for it because I don't like the offset. I don't like the fact that the offset that the Senate gave us was in the SNAP Program. I've been fighting that offset. That is a real offset and it has real consequences. It is one of the reasons we are lobbying the White House: to find an alternative offset.

But let's not diminish the fact that, by passing this bill, we are actually saving this government countless billions, if not trillions, of dollars down the road by making sure that our kids have access to nutritious food in the school setting.

At this point, I yield 3 minutes to a valued member of the Rules Committee, the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Polis).

I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Baca), who will focus on the important issue of child nutrition.

I yield the gentleman from California an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. Speaker, let me just say to the gentlewoman that when they are in charge next year, I am happy to support her in eliminating excessive paperwork. But I wish she and others would understand the importance of what we are discussing here today, feeding hungry kids, making sure that our children get nutritious meals at schools. I mean, I've got to be honest with you. I think that's a hell of a lot more important. The fact that, to some of my friends on the other side of the aisle, this appears as if it's some sort of a trivial issue tells me that they haven't been to food banks and they haven't been in some of their schools talking to teachers and talking to the people who oversee the food service program about the challenges that so many school districts face in providing healthy meals to our kids.

We all talk about how we want to control health care costs. Let's give our kids healthy food in school settings. That will do more to control health care costs and ensure that kids will have a healthy adulthood. You want to deal with the issue of better test scores? Making sure kids have a good, nutritious meal in a school setting is one of the ways to do that.

That's an important issue. This is a big deal what we're talking about here today. This is one of the most important pieces of legislation that has come to this floor, and I would appreciate if my friends on the other side of the aisle would join us in supporting this underlying bill so we can get it on the President's desk at the end of the day to get him to sign this so we can move forward in an area that is of great importance.

Mr. Speaker, at this time I would like to yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro) who's been a champion on this and so many issues dealing with food insecurity and hunger and good nutrition.

I yield the gentlewoman an additional 1 minute.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

When my friends talk about passing on to future generations debt, I can't help but wonder where they were when President Bush passed these tax cuts that added over a trillion dollars to our debt, totally unpaid for, most of it going to millionaires and billionaires. And I want to know where they are right now, they want to extend the tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires and they still don't want to pay for it.

But somehow when it comes to debt and piling it on to future generations, when it comes to tax cuts for very wealthy people, they're silent. Where were they when President Bush at 2 o'clock in the morning, they kept a roll call open for 3 hours and passed a Medicare prescription drug bill that cost hundreds of billions of dollars that was totally unpaid for. That cost a lot more than was advertised. Totally silent.

Where are they when some of us are saying, we ought to pay for these wars. If you want them, you ought to pay for them or end them. I'd prefer to end them, but for those who want them you ought to pay for them. They're silent.

When it comes to closing loopholes for big corporations that routinely stick it to the American people, no, no, we can't do that. Even though it might save money for taxpayers, we can put it toward deficit reduction. No, no, no. Those are very wealthy special interests. They want to protect them, whether it's Big Oil or big pharmaceuticals or whatever, at any cost.

So when I hear them talk about debt, I am reminded of the fact that when President Clinton left office we had a surplus. They ran this place and drove this economy into a ditch. And quite frankly, it's been a nightmare trying to dig us out of this ditch.

And I give the President great credit for his courage in trying to move this country forward in the area of health care, and today in the area of trying to move this bill forward on child nutrition. So they have no credibility when it comes to talking about reducing deficits or debt.

And, in fact, as we speak, they are trying to figure out a way I think probably to defeat this bill, to take the money that this bill costs, the offsets for this bill, take that money and put it toward tax cuts for rich people. I mean, that's what they want do.

So again, I would urge my colleagues to understand the importance of what we are doing today. We are trying to make sure that our kids get healthy food and nutritious food in school settings. We are trying to pave the way for healthy futures for our kids. We want to make sure our kids can learn better. This is important stuff that we are talking about here today, and I would urge all my colleagues to support the rule and to support the underlying bill.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, my Republican friends will do what they always do. They will come up with some stunts to try to get us to delay or to not pass this bill today. That's just what they do. And the fact is that if we change this underlying bill in any way--and I would urge my colleagues to be prepared for probably an uncomfortable or an ugly motion to recommit later on in the debate. But if any of their procedural stunts prevail, then we will end up not passing this bill-- the Senate will not consider an amended child nutrition bill; it ends it right here and now--and that would be a tragedy.

I would urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to stop the politics just for a few minutes and do the right thing when it comes to this child nutrition bill. This is a bill that will improve access for our kids. This is a bill that increases the focus on nutrition quality and on children's health. It is a

bill that will improve program management and program integrity. It is fully paid for at no cost to the taxpayers.

And I would say to my colleagues on the Democratic side who are concerned about the current offset, that we have a commitment from the White House to fix that in a future vehicle so that the offset is not the SNAP cuts. But the underlying bill here is a good bill, is a good bill that will mean a world of difference for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of our kids all throughout this country. Making sure that hungry kids get at least one, hopefully more than one nutritious meal a day in a school setting is something we all should be for. It should not be the subject of partisan politics.

Making sure our kids get healthy, nutritious food and not junk in school should be a priority of all of ours, Republican and Democrat alike. This shouldn't be a partisan issue. I mean, the fact that we are here today and there is some controversy around this bill tells me that it's just politics as usual. My friends on the Republican side don't like it because the President likes it. Well, you know what? That's been the routine throughout the entire tenure of this President. But for once, for once, just put the party politics aside and do what's right.

I cochair the House Hunger Caucus and the Congressional Hunger Center. Hunger is a problem in this country. There are tens of millions of our citizens who are hungry. Seventeen million children in this country, the United States of America, the richest country on this planet, are hungry. It's a national disgrace. All of us in this Congress should be ashamed of that fact, that we haven't been able to help be part of the solution in a more significant way. This is one way that we can be part of that solution.

I have a list of national organizations and State organizations, too many to put in the Congressional Record, but it is significant. The support across this country for this legislation is significant.

I want to thank the Speaker of the House and Chairman George Miller and Rosa DeLauro and Carolyn McCarthy and Barbara Lee and so many others who have been part of this legislation. I want to thank Senator Blanche Lincoln, who was a champion of this legislation over in the Senate.

But we must act today. We must do what's right for our kids, not for our political party, but for our kids. So enough of the stunts. Let's say ``no'' to all the stunts today. Let's say ``yes'' to this important child nutrition reauthorization bill, ``yes'' to a healthier future for our kids, ``yes'' to making sure they can better learn in school, ``yes'' to developing better and healthier habits that will last them a lifetime. This is a good, this is an important bill. This is a big deal today. This is a huge deal, and everybody should join and support the final passage of the bill.

So I urge a ``yes'' vote on the previous question and on the rule. I urge my colleagues not to fall for any motion to recommit stunts when the bill is under consideration.

I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1430, honoring and saluting golf legend Juan Antonio ``Chi Chi'' Rodriguez. First, I would like to thank Chairman George Miller, Ranking Member John Kline, Subcommittee Chair Carolyn McCarthy, Ms. Woolsey, Ranking Member Todd Russell Platts, and Mr. Roe. I want to take the time to thank all of my colleagues for their support.

I rise today in strong support of H.R. 1430, to honor Juan Antonio ``Chi Chi'' Rodriguez. In 1935, Chi Chi Rodriguez was born into a poor family in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. He was one of six siblings. His father used to earn only $18 a week as a laborer and cattle herder. His mother was a housekeeper. Their family struggled. When Chi Chi was only 7 years old, he helped families by earning money as a water carrier on the sugar plantation.

He soon learned that he could earn more money as a caddy. At that time, he also taught himself how to play golf--and that is very difficult for anyone who is playing golf. I have been playing golf for some time, and it's still very difficult, and I am still trying to learn--by using tree limbs and a metal can hammered into a ball.

With unyielding determination and discipline by 9 years of age, Chi Chi could play and win. Boy, that's difficult. You know, we wish we could play and would have played when we were young like that at the age of 9.

His uncompromising sportsmanship resulted in a lifetime 38 professional wins, including eight PGA wins, 1963, 1964, 1967, 1968, 1972, 1973 and 1979, and 22 senior PGA Tour wins.

Chi Chi Rodriguez was inducted into the PGA World Hall of Fame in 1992. However, his legacy does not end on the links. And I want to remind everybody, this resolution is not about his golf and what he did for golf, but it's about what he did as a human being and his contributions and scholarships to many individuals, and that's why we are honoring him. I want people to remember that and my colleagues to remember that. This is not about a golfer, this is about an individual who was willing to do as much as he can to help other individuals.

Chi Chi Rodriguez's robust charitable contributions for the benefit of at-risk and underprivileged youth have helped thousands of young people. He and his wife, Iwalani, have changed lives, and can you imagine many individuals lives that are changed because someone cared, someone touched their lives, someone gave them direction, someone gave them confidence in themselves and said, you know what, there is a better way of life.

Chi Chi wanted to make a better way of life for many individuals, and that's why we are honoring him and that's why we are recognizing them. They have strengthened self-confidence and fostered stellar discipline in many young people by founding the Chi Chi Rodriguez Academy.

The mission of the academy is to assist at-risk children by improving their self-esteem, character, work ethic, social adjustment, and academic performance, using the golf course as a living classroom. In addition, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute honored Chi Chi Rodriguez with a CHCI Service Award for his ongoing commitment to providing opportunities for Latino youth to succeed.

His support of CHCI's fiesta, which is a bipartisan Fiesta de Golf Scholarship Challenge, has helped raise more than $824,000 for CHCI's Scholarship Awards Program over the past 3 years. These are a sample of many of the 430-some scholarships that have helped many of our kids, Javier Acolan, Ranier Gonzalez, Ashley Garcia. These are a few of many that I could name here tonight but when you look at the faces and you look at individuals who had an opportunity to pursue their education, become successful, contribute to our society, this is what Chi Chi is about, improving our communities, making sure that they become productive in our communities.

Chi Chi has received many other humanitarian awards due to his giving nature and leadership. He has received the Salvation Army Gold Crest Award and the Good Sport Award from Sports Illustrated for Kids.

He was inducted into the World Sport Humanitarian Hall of Fame and received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from Georgetown College in Kentucky. He also received the American Education Award from the American Association of School Administrators.

With his support, The Chi Chi Rodriguez Youth Foundation earned the National Golf Foundation Award for the Best Youth Program in the United States in 1986 and the Robie Award for Humanitarianism presented by The Jackie Robinson Foundation in 1996.

His success on the links has earned Chi Chi Rodriguez a special place in history.

However, his work, and I state, however his work in helping many disadvantaged children has earned Chi Chi a special place in each of our hearts, because it's about giving, it's not about receiving, it's about helping others, not about what you get. He wasn't about me, myself and Irene, it was about what can I do to help others. And that's what Chi Chi wanted to do. He wanted to touch those lives.

He proved that humble beginnings do not define a person. He has shown us that with hard work and determination that you can be successful, but you can be caring and you can give back. Because the Lord gave him something, and he wanted to return something back to others.

By giving back to help our youth, he taught us. Please join me in honoring and saluting Chi Chi Rodriguez. I urge all Members to support the passage of H. Res. 1430.

I yield to the gentleman from Utah.

Yes.

Yes.

Would you like to join? We would love to have you join and be part of the sponsors as well. Because we also have, from your side, a member of our board that's on that board as well.

That's correct.

Thank you.

No, it's not. It's really thinking about someone who has contributed, someone who has done an awful lot. And it's bipartisan individuals, both Republican and Democrat, that belong to the CHCI board as well. We welcome the new Members that were elected to become part of that board that will say, you know what, we have got to honor individuals.

It's not about a conflict of interest, it's not about anything else. It's about

doing something that's positive for individuals. When someone is going to receive something in return, then it becomes a conflict of interest. But we are not receiving anything in return. All we are doing is honoring an individual.

Thank you. Again, this is about children.

Will the gentleman yield?

We would love to honor other foundations and other individuals as well. This is only one of many that we should recognize, just as I am honoring Arnold Palmer that we gave the Congressional Gold Medal. And at one time I hope you are here to celebrate when we have the actual gold medal that we will present under your leadership that we will be able to do here on the floor later on next year because it won't happen now.

Once again, I would like to state for the record that this is not a conflict of interest. This is about bipartisan individuals who sit on the board who continue to want to provide assistance to many individuals who are in need of help. Whether it's this organization or whether it's any other organization, I think it's important that we do recognize individuals that are willing to give of their time and their effort to make life better for someone else. And this is a humanitarian individual.

I know we are on the subject of recognizing the sports individual, and I would like just for the record to state that my colleague that just spoke actually supported a resolution to support a sports individual as well, and that was H. Res. 942, for the record. So if we are going to be consistent, let's be consistent on both angles.

With that, I would like to, once again, state that many corporations and many individuals give because they're good corporate citizens, because they want to make our communities a lot better. They want to provide an opportunity for individuals to enhance their education, further their education, be productive citizens. And sometimes many individuals cannot afford to go on to a college or university. It's that assistance that we give to individuals that will allow an individual to further their education, thus for becoming productive individuals.

This is an individual that has helped in that endeavor to make sure that we raise the additional money, whether it's for this institution or whether it's for other institutions. I belong to a variety of different institutions that raise money on a bipartisan basis to make sure that we allow many individuals to be productive individuals within our communities.

It wasn't wrong. It was a good thing you did.

I appreciate your doing it in the past, and I look forward to your continued support.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I thank my friend from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) for yielding me the time.

First, Mr. Speaker, thank you. I don't know if I will have the privilege again of speaking on this floor while you're presiding, and I want to thank you for your service and especially for your friendship.

And to Mr. McGovern, I thank him for his kind words. I said a few days ago in some remarks here on the floor that this is a great honor of being a Member of Congress of the United States I will never forget, and for the rest of my days, I will feel that honor. And I thanked all of my colleagues, those who have helped me during the years here and the many battles that I've been involved in, and those who have opposed me. And so I think it's appropriate to point to the example of the graciousness demonstrated by Mr. McGovern. We've had very strong debates on this floor, and yet, he demonstrated that graciousness once again today. I thank him for his words, and as I did the other day, I thank all of my colleagues, those who have agreed with me and those who have opposed me, for the great honor of having been able to serve along with them here in this Congress.

Mr. Speaker, we have been discussing the issue of the effect of the debt on the economic reality of the American people, and as a matter of fact as this Congress starts reaching an end, I think it's appropriate to bring forth the fact to remind our colleagues that this is going to be, I believe, the first Congress where we have not seen even one open rule. So we stand here today with another piece of legislation being brought to the floor with no amendments allowed by the Rules Committee and, in this case, a product from the Senate before us that has had absolutely no input from Members of the House.

I think that all of us in this House, certainly an overwhelming majority of the membership of the House, would support--I certainly do--the continuation and reauthorization of reduced and free school food programs. The bill before us unfortunately does not improve upon the current situation in that regard.

In fact, the bipartisan National Governors Association has outlined several problems that they have with this underlying legislation, and I was reading some hours ago their objections. Governors Ritter of Colorado and Rell of Connecticut highlighted new certification and monitoring mandates that will be forced on States by this legislation in order for the States to be able to continue their important participation in these programs.

Actually, I was disturbed to learn from the bipartisan National Governors Association that the underlying legislation sets a federally mandated minimum price that school districts must pay for meals. In the past, if a school district negotiated lower food costs, that was considered applying smart business practices by the school districts. But no longer. With a mandatory minimum, school districts are now going to have to pay more for their food programs, which of course will be passed along to middle class families in the form of higher meal costs.

So I think, in reality, what we are seeing in this legislation is a tax increase on working families. Unfortunately, a substitute that was brought forth in the Rules Committee by the minority, by Ranking Member Kline, which would have reauthorized these important programs, was not allowed to be offered. That substitute amendment would have extended and strengthened the existing important programs but would have avoided the new mandates on States and communities.

There is another issue, Mr. Speaker, that I think is important to bring out. In order to pay for the new programs in this legislation, the congressional majority decided to use previously appropriated funding intended for the Food Stamp Program. The Food Stamp funds were provided under the so-called stimulus legislation, so it's as though the majority is admitting that taxpayer dollars were incorrectly spent, and they are now using those stimulus funds to pay for these programs.

The stimulus bill was not subject to the so-called PAYGO requirements because the majority labeled it as ``emergency spending.'' Under the rules of the House, emergency spending cannot be used as a PAYGO offset for future spending because it was never originally offset. As a result, the rule that we are debating must again waive the important PAYGO requirements.

Now, I know it's difficult to follow. I was trying to understand it in the Rules Committee last night. But the end result is that this bill is paid for by funds that are borrowed by the Federal Government. So I guess we could say that we are voting to provide our children with nutritious school lunches which will be paid to foreign entities in the future, with interest, foreign entities from which we are borrowing funds, thus adding to our national debt and imposing new fees on families.

By the way, we could have reauthorized these programs without adding to our national debt and imposing new fees on families. Adding to our national debt in that way and imposing new fees on families is not the solution to improving the Nation's school meal programs at a time when, obviously, many are struggling.

At this time, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield 3 minutes to my friend from New York (Mr. Lee), who is the author of the proposal that we will be discussing subsequently, the YouCut proposal.

Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to yield 2 minutes to my friend from Michigan (Mrs. Miller).

Mr. Speaker, I'd just like to point out I think it's important to clarify that if our proposal today, the YouCut proposal, to eliminate for the taxpayer unnecessary spending on paperwork, if that's adopted it would not negate in any way consideration of the underlying bill on the lunch programs.

At this point I would like to yield 2 minutes to my friend from West Virginia (Mrs. Capito).

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I believe it's fitting that those of us on this side of the aisle are bringing forward another proposal, a YouCut proposal that's been voted on and recommended to this House by a significant number of our constituents. They continue to sound the alarm on government spending, and we must, this Congress must finally listen.

To date, participants in Republican Whip Cantor's YouCut initiative have voted to cut over $180 billion in spending. This week, those participating have voted for a proposal by Congressman Lee of New York, who we heard from before, to end the unnecessary printing of congressional bills and resolutions.

I think it's appropriate that we finally acknowledge the existence of the Internet, and that much unnecessary spending is taking place through the printing of documents. That was appropriate and logical in the past, but not after the development of many new technologies.

So I will be asking Members to vote ``no'' on the previous question so we can have a vote on Congressman Lee's proposal. And again, I remind my colleagues that a ``no'' vote on the previous question will not preclude consideration of the underlying legislation that we have been debating today.

I ask unanimous consent, Mr. Speaker, that the text of the amendment and extraneous material be placed in the Record prior to the vote on the previous question.

Again, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the previous question and ``no'' on the rule.

Having said that, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Will the gentleman yield?

My understanding is that you are actually a board member of the Congressional Hispanic Institute, is that correct?

My understanding is that actually 13 of the 28 sponsors of this bill are on the board of this, is that correct?

My understanding is that the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute is an independent 501(c)3.

My question, my concern about this is I have one about recognizing sports folks--and that's a separate issue. He has certainly accomplished so much on the golf course and off the golf course. I admire the work that you have done in this Congress.

But it does seem to be a huge conflict of interest to sponsor a bill recognizing Chi Chi Rodriguez, who then, in turn for his accomplishments for youth programs of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. Isn't that a conflict of interest?

Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman from California would engage with me here, I do have a few more questions, and I appreciate the dialogue and the passion you have for this.

One of my concerns is that it actually, I think, detracts from the idea of the accomplishments of Chi Chi Rodriguez and also the good work that I am sure that the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute has done. But to say that there is nothing in receipt, that it's all about giving and no receiving, it seems to me, on the appearance of it, that there is a huge conflict of interest. For Members of Congress, who serve independently on a 501(c)3, they serve independently with this organization, with a fiduciary responsibility to that organization, to use the office of being a Member in Congress to advance legislation that is surely, surely going to benefit the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.

I would be happy to yield some of my time to address this.

Reclaiming my time, for the record, I have absolutely no doubt that the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute does good. You have mentioned some scholarships. I have looked at the Web site. There is no doubt. There is no question in my mind. My question is, why this particular foundation, one that you serve on the board of directors.

This country has thousands of foundations that do good work. But if the threshold here, and my understanding is the institute raises in the neighborhood of 6 to $7 million----

I yield to the gentleman from California.

Reclaiming my time, I feel, Mr. Speaker, that this is a colossal waste of time to recognize sports heroes. That is a separate subject. That is a separate subject. Last week I voted against Joe Paterno, for goodness' sakes, one of the great football coaches in this country. Chi Chi Rodriguez has accomplished amazing feats. There's no doubt in my mind about this. But I feel as if the floor of the House of Representatives is being used for Members' own personal benefits to actually move forward their own foundation. And that is the concern.

There are thousands, as you just agreed to, thousands of foundations that do great work, that inspire kids and youth. That's part of what makes this country such a great country. But the only reason this bill is moving forward today, the reason it's coming to the floor of the House, is that we have 13 Members of Congress who serve on the board of directors of this, which seems like a conflict of interest.

If you want to address that, I would be happy to yield more time to you to address it.

Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, I do appreciate the gentleman addressing the questions. I really do. One of the concerns that is there is if you look at the opportunity, if you will, to attract corporate money to this. I went to the Web site today. These companies donate in excess of $200,000 to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute: AstraZeneca, Exxon Mobil, Toyota, Wal-Mart. These are companies that donate over $100,000, according to the Website: AFL-CIO and affiliate unions, Altria Group, American Petroleum Institute, Anheuser-Busch, AT&T, Change to Win and affiliate unions, Comcast Corporation, Dell, Lilly, Lockheed Martin, Motorola, PepsiCo, Southwest, State Farm Insurance, Telemundo, Time Warner Cable, the Coca-Cola Company, UnitedHealthcare Foundation, Univision, UPS.

The purpose of this bill, according to the resolution, the very last line here, is to direct the Clerk of the House of Representatives to make available an enrolled copy of this resolution to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, of which 13 Members of this body sit on the board of directors, and to the Chi Chi Rodriguez Youth Foundation.

Mr. Speaker, just to finish the conclusion of that thought, the reason, at least from my vantage point, and I would hope that you would address this, the reason that this resolution is moving forward is that there is a benefit to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. They can use this as a tool to go out and solicit more money, more support, and grow their own personal foundation. It's not something that's afforded to other foundations. And the only reason this is moving forward is because we have 13 Members in this body that are cosponsors of this legislation that sit on the board of directors. And that is of deep concern.

Mr. Speaker, what the gentleman from California pointed out is true. Previously I had sponsored and voted for resolutions regarding sports folks. I finally realized this is a colossal waste of time. I took a pledge that I was no longer going to do it. I did it in the past. It was wrong. We have people unemployed. We have people who can't meet their mortgages.

I have come to find I think they are absolutely a colossal waste of time. Even though they're a lot of good people, but we're not recognizing taking care of the people's business. That's my own personal belief.

But to clarify the question that you had, yes, I did do that in the past. I

wish I hadn't, but I'm a freshman. I made a mistake, and I'm moving forward.

I thank the gentleman. And I might just say to the prior speaker on the other side of the aisle that the American people did not vote to cut food for kids in our country. They voted to cut the tax cuts that are provided to the corporate special interests in this Nation, which the other side of the aisle seems to have no problem with.

I rise today in support of this rule. The Hunger-Free Kids Act represents a long overdue, a much-needed recommitment to the health and to the well-being of our schoolchildren. We all know the double-edged problems that millions of young people currently face.

Today's kids are threatened by both a growing obesity epidemic, and far too many struggling families in this economy are facing gnawing hunger. According to a recent report, one out of every four young adults is too overweight to serve in our military. At the same time, according to the Food Research Action Center, one out of every four households with children experienced food hardship this year--meaning they did not have the money to purchase the food their families needed.

Don't let people fool you with words like ``food hardship'' and ``food insecurity.'' It results in hunger. Kids in this Nation are going to bed hungry every single night.

This bill marks a significant step forward against both fronts of this dangerous pincer movement. By expanding access to and emphasizing good nutrition for all schoolchildren, this bill will reduce hunger. It will reduce obesity. The Hunger-Free Kids Act will add 115,000 new students into the school meals program by using Medicaid data to certify eligible kids. It will provide an additional 21 million meals a year by reimbursing providers for after-school meals to low-income children.

While expanding access to meal programs, this bill also works to improve the nutritional quality of all of the food in our schools. It sets national nutrition standards that will finally get all of the junk food infiltrating our classrooms and our cafeterias out the door. And for those schools who comply with these revised nutrition standards, it provides the first real reimbursement rate increase--6 cents a meal. And that is the largest increase we have seen in over 30 years.

This bill will also strengthen the farm-to-school networks so that more healthy produce, local foods, even the foods that are grown in the school gardens can find their way into the menus.

Our kids consume roughly 35 to 50 percent of their daily calories during the school day. By passing this bill, we can help see they are getting enough nutritious food to stay healthy, to grow, to learn, to succeed.

Given the current economic climate, I know some will ask, How can we afford this bill? I say how can we afford not to pass it? Leaving millions of children hungry and malnourished in the name of budget- cutting is penny wise, pound foolish, and is unconscionable--especially from those who would now say let's provide the richest 2 percent of the people in this Nation with a tax cut of over $100,000 a year. They're eating well, they're eating high on the hog, and kids are going to bed hungry every night in our Nation.

Countless studies have shown that kids with access to a nutritious breakfast learn more and perform better in school. From the very beginning, I have been working, and others have been working, to expand access to Federal aid, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program--yes, the food stamp program--for eligible children. We want to make sure that all of our kids have access to the nutrition that they need for a healthy future.

Using the food stamp as an offset at a time when one in five kids receives food stamp assistance moves us away from that goal.

Nevertheless, this legislation is a big step forward. I, for one, and others have said we will continue to push to see that the SNAP funding is restored; we will work with the White House to make sure those funds are restored. I'm happy to see the Congress moving in the right direction today and pledge to

fight to continue to have access to the resources that will allow us to have all kids who are eligible for these resources have the accessibility to gain these resources.

I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this rule. Nothing that we do in this body is as important as ensuring that our children, our grandchildren, and the next generation of Americans have the tools, the opportunities and the nutrition that they need to thrive and to succeed. Our kids deserve no less.