Madam President, I rise to speak in support of the Opportunity to Address College Hunger Act, which I introduced today. According to a 2018 GAO study, roughly 2 million at-risk college students who…
Madam President, I rise to speak in support of the Opportunity to Address College Hunger Act, which I introduced today.
According to a 2018 GAO study, roughly 2 million at-risk college students who were potentially eligible for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, benefits did not report receiving them. Millions of eligible college students across the Nation face steep barriers to accessing these critical benefits due to a complex application process and a lack of information-sharing from their own colleges and universities.
In California alone, 127,000 college students received CalFresh before the pandemic, despite upwards of 690,000 students being potentially eligible. Through my conversations with California college students, many have said that they wished their campuses told them they were eligible for SNAP and how to access benefits.
That is why I am introducing this bill--to increase awareness of SNAP for potentially eligible college students and to continue the fight to tackle student hunger.
If enacted, this bill would require colleges and universities to notify students participating in State or federally financed work-study programs of their potential eligibility for SNAP benefits. Institutions would also need to provide students with details about how they can obtain more information about SNAP, confirm their eligibility for the program, and access benefits.
This notification would be developed by the U.S. Department of Education, in consultation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and would be specific to the student's State of residence and provide contact information for the local office where the student can apply for SNAP.
The notification would also include an official document confirming that the student participates in a work-study program and meets one of the SNAP eligibility requirements for college students. This documentation would help students overcome a common paperwork hurdle they face when applying for SNAP benefits.
Finally, this bill would require the Department of Education and USDA to provide guidance to States and institutions on how to better engage with potentially eligible students.
While I support eliminating the restrictive work requirements that limit access to critical nutrition benefits for millions of low-income college students, this bill works to tackle barriers students face with the eligibility requirements currently in place.
I want to thank Representative Suzanne Bonamici for introducing this bill in the House and for her continued work to combat student hunger. I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense legislation to help improve student food security, health, and learning.
Madam President, I rise to introduce the Supporting Farm Workers' Mental Health Act of 2023. This bill would ensure that the Farm and Ranch Assistance Network serves the behavioral health needs of farm workers.
The Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network is a transformative program that addresses the mental health needs of farmers, ranchers, and those engaged in agricultural occupations. While grants can be used to serve farmworkers, farmworkers are not explicitly identified as population of interest, despite their unique health needs.
Farmworkers face significant barriers to care, including a shortage of culturally competent providers and low health literacy in addition to the challenges associated with accessing healthcare in rural areas. Nineteen percent of farmworkers reported symptoms of anxiety, and 14 percent reported feeling depressed, according to a recent University of California, Merced study.
The Supporting Farm Workers' Mental Health Act of 2023 would amend the Farm and Ranch Stress Act of 2023 would amend the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network to explicitly include farmworkers as an eligible population and ensure peer-to-peer mental health services are an allowable grant activity. Both changes will update the program to reflect our agricultural workforce's behavioral health needs.
Farmworkers feed our Nation. It is our responsibility to ensure they have access to behavioral health care they need.
I look forward to working with my colleagues to enact this important initiative as quickly as possible.
Madam President, I rise to introduce the Health Equity and Middle Eastern and North African Community Inclusion Act of 2023. This bill would ensure that Middle Eastern and North African communities in the United States receive the Federal recognition they need to receive targeted public health resources.
Too often, Federal data collection overlooks people in MENA communities. This is true even at the Office of Minority Health, which is tasked with the important work of improving health outcomes for racial and ethnic minority populations. The office's definition of ``racial and ethnic minorities'' does not currently include a Middle Eastern or North African category, meaning that people in this community are often misidentified as White. As a result, the unique health concerns that Middle Easterners and North Africans face remain underreported and unaddressed.
This bureaucratic oversight has a tangible impact on individuals' abilities to live full and healthy lives.
The Health Equity and Middle Eastern and North African Community Inclusion Act of 2023 would add a Middle Eastern and North African category to the definition of ``racial and ethnic minorities'' used by the Office of Minority Health. Additionally, it would direct the Department of Health and Human Services to use this data to conduct a comprehensive study of the unique patterns and health outcomes in MENA populations.
I want to thank Representative Tlaib for joining me in introducing this bill. I look forward to working with my colleagues to take this important step to reduce health disparities.
