Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise to join with the Ranking Member of the Ways and Means Committee and my colleagues to call for the immediate passage of legislation in the House concur with the Senate in the restoration of unemployment benefits to the more than 2.2 million Americans who have been cut off extended unemployment insurance because Republicans continue to block extension of the program.

It is inconceivable that as a government and as a nation, we would leave all of these people hanging, many of them since December of 28 of last year 2013. Nationally, nearly 72,000 people are losing unemployment insurance on average every week, adding to the 202 million people who have already lost their benefits.

The Department of Labor estimated that the bipartisan Senate agreement to extend the emergency unemployment insurance program would benefit nearly 2.8 million people.

Illinois, my state of Illinois is estimated to have lost 296,763,435 just under 300 million dollars in unemployment dollars in unemployment benefits during the first three months of 2014 due to the Republican shutdown of the Federal benefits program. 153,400 Illinoisans would benefit from extending emergency unemployment benefits. And let's do it now.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to commend the mayor of the city of Chicago for initiation of a new set of policies designed to help facilitate the reentry of individuals with criminal records back into normal and productive life.

These policies include apprenticeship and job opportunities with the Chicago Transit Authority, city departments, and other municipal agencies, and--on a limited basis--the ability to access public housing as a place to live.

These are important initiatives for the reentry into community and for the citizens of Chicago. I commend Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

I want to thank the ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee. I am pleased to join with him and others of my colleagues as we come to the floor to call for the immediate passage of legislation in the House to concur with the Senate in the restoration of unemployment benefits to the more than 2.2 million Americans who have been cut off of extended unemployment insurance because our Republican colleagues continue to block an extension of the program.

Mr. Speaker, it is inconceivable to me that, as a government, as a nation, we would leave all of these individuals hanging, many of them since December 28 of last year, in 2013. Nationally, nearly 72,000 people are losing unemployment insurance, on average, every week, adding to the 202 million people who have already lost their benefits. The Department of Labor estimated that the bipartisan Senate agreement to extend emergency unemployment insurance would benefit nearly 2.8 million people. That is a big part of America.

Long-term unemployment wrecks people's lives. It makes it almost impossible for them to ever catch up because they have gotten behind. They have lost what they had. They have been evicted from their homes. Their children have had to leave college. They just have not known which way to turn except to turn to their government, which they believe has their interests at heart and will do the right thing by and for them.

Illinois, my State--the home of Lincoln--is estimated to have lost $296,763,435, just under $300 million, in unemployment benefits during the first 3 months of the year. Any way you count it, that is a lot of money, and it takes that money away from and out of the economy. Those of us who understand a certain kind of economics know that, if you are not able to exchange goods and services, if people are not able to go to the store and get a bottle of milk or to stop at the service station and buy gasoline, there is no point in talking about economic recovery. So, not only is it in the best interests of those individuals who are in need of unemployment benefits, but it is also in the best interest of our Nation as a whole.

Mr. Levin, I want to commend you for the leadership that you have provided on this issue. I want to thank you for the tremendous leadership and for your understanding of the issues facing America.

I hope that, next week, when we return, that our colleagues will realize that we, too, can make a difference, that we can join with the Senate and pass unemployment insurance benefits for more than 2.8 million Americans.

Mr. Speaker, Medicare is the federal health insurance program for people who are 65 or older, certain younger people with disabilities, and people with End-Stage Renal Disease (permanent kidney failure requiring dialysis or a transplant).

For the past 11 years, the Medicare sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula has impeded stability in the Medicare program for providers and beneficiaries. Congress has to fix the SGR and not continue to do short term fixes every 3 or 6 or 12 months. Physicians should and deserve equitable reimbursement and not a lower reimbursement rate for the services they provide to our seniors. This is one of the leading reasons why physicians are leaving their practice. We should repeal SGR and establish a legislative fix with a minimum five-year period of payment stability for our doctors. This period will allow doctors to develop long-term strategic planning for their practice and time to invest in electronic health information technology and other medical systems to improve access and quality care for their patients.

Now is the time to capitalize on the lower offset now projected for the permanent repeal of the SGR formula otherwise failure to do so may cause problems for many providers to see Medicare patients. Ten thousand new enrollees enter Medicare each day. Access to physicians will suffer for the Medicare population as the gap between payments and practice costs continue to grow.

We needed to pass H.R. 4015 without any poison pill provisions that will attempt to take pot shots to diminish the efficacy of the Affordable Care Act.

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

Mr. Speaker, as a member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, I am pleased to join my colleagues in the consideration of H.R. 2391, a bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 5323 Highway N in Cottleville, Missouri, as the Lance Corporal Phillip Vinnedge Post Office.

The measure before us was introduced on June 14, 2013, by my colleague, Representative Ann Wagner. In accordance with the committee's requirements, the bill before us is cosponsored by all members of the Missouri delegation. H.R. 2391 was reported out of committee by unanimous consent on March 12, 2014.

After graduating from Francis Howell Central High School in 2009, Phillip attended Lewis & Clark Technical School for 2 years. Described as loving life and the challenges it presented, it is no surprise that Phillip enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.

Phillip Vinnedge was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Pendleton in California. In September 2010, Lance Corporal Vinnedge's unit was deployed to Afghanistan. Only a month later, he was tragically killed on October 13, 2010, as his unit was conducting combat operations in the Helmand province region.

While Lance Corporal Vinnedge will always be remembered as a marine who proudly served his country, those who know him best will forever remember him for his courageous and competitive spirit. Lance Corporal Vinnedge leaves behind his loving parents, Dave and Julie Vinnedge, and two brothers, Corey and Jason.

Lance Corporal Vinnedge is the recipient of the Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon, National Defense Service Medal, and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.

Mr. Speaker, I ask that we pass this bill to show honor and appreciation to one of our fallen heroes.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to Reverend Cleve Minter, a member of my community, who passed away a few days ago.

Reverend Minter was pastor of the New Mt. Vernon Baptist Church, but also was a great gospel singer, who along with three of his friends-- Reverend John Parker, Reverend Mac McCullum, and Reverend William Jenkins--were known fondly as the four heavyweights, and it didn't mean anything to do with size.

I express condolences to his family and church.

Mr. Speaker, one of the great pleaures that I have had as an elected official has been getting to know families like that of Mr. & Mrs. Tidwell, whom I met doing what is called community organizing. Mrs. Annie Tidwell was blessed to possess one of God's greatest gifts, the ability to cook. She of course was an avid churchgoer, a wonderfully engaged Christian and churchgoer, one who looked after her husband and family, and their home was always open for civic and community activities.

Some of my best block club remembrances took place in the Tidwell home because everybody in the neighborhood knew that if you were at the Tidwells' there would be a great environment and some of the best food on this side of heaven.

The Tidwell family is a prime example of what has been the underpinning of Black development in this country, making use of whatever skills, talents, training and hard work they could produce. For many years Mr. Tidwell was my plumber and together, the two of them were stalwarts in the Austin Community and great friends to everyone. It seems as though the poet Sam Walter Foss must have had them in mind when he wrote, the House by the side of the Road.

The House by the Side of the Road

There are hermit souls that live withdrawn

In the place of their self-content;

There are souls like stars, that dwell apart,

In a fellowless firmament;

There are pioneer souls that blaze the paths

Where highways never ran--

But let me live by the side of the road

And be a friend to man.

Let me live in a house by the side of the road

Where the race of men go by--

The men who are good and the men who are bad,

As good and as bad as I.

I would not sit in the scorner's seat

Nor hurl the cynic's ban--

Let me live in a house by the side of the road

And be a friend to man.

I see from my house by the side of the road

By the side of the highway of life,

The men who press with the ardor of hope,

The men who are faint with the strife,

But I turn not away from their smiles and tears,

Both parts of an infinite plan--

Let me live in a house by the side of the road

And be a friend to man.

I know there are brook-gladdened meadows ahead,

And mountains of wearisome height;

That the road passes on through the long afternoon

And stretches away to the night.

And still I rejoice when the travelers rejoice

And weep with the strangers that moan,

Nor live in my house by the side of the road

Like a man who dwells alone.

Let me live in my house by the side of the road,

Where the race of men go by--

They are good, they are bad, they are weak, they are strong,

Wise, foolish--so am I.

Then why should I sit in the scorner's seat,

Or hurl the cynic's ban?

Let me live in my house by the side of the road

And be a friend to man.

Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Lucille Robinson Faulkner was born in August of 1930 in Portland, Arkansas in the Mississippi Delta, eight miles from Parkdale, Arkansas where I was born and lived until I was nineteen years old. Mrs. Faulkner moved with her grandmother and family to Chicago where she attended Waller High School and graduated in 1948, which made her one of the more educated Black persons in her community at that time.

Mrs. Faulkner married her husband Mr. Derrell Faulkner in 1949, and to this union, thirteen children were born. Mrs. Faulkner worked as a seamstress, took care of her children and eventually was hired by Samuel

Adams Sr., an outstanding, colorful and very successful attorney who is known far and wide. This was a position which she held until she retired. Mrs. Faulkner was a great cook and actively involved with church and the community in which she lived.

I am indeed proud of the fact that I was able to know and represent individuals and groups of people like the Faulkner family whose heritage is so closely aligned with mine that I feel a great sense of personal kinship.

Bless you Mrs. Lucille Faulkner and may your soul rest in peace.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 4118, the 50th vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which, if passed and implemented, would increase premiums, decrease coverage, and increase the number of people who are not insured by as much as 11 million people in this country. It is unbelievable that we would be on the floor voting for the 50th time to try and turn back the clock on millions of Americans who have been denied health insurance coverage because of a preexisting condition, didn't have enough money, or did not have accessibility to facilities.

In Illinois, over 256,000 individuals benefit from the Affordable Care Act. Nationally, more than 4 million Americans have enrolled in private plans, with 82 percent receiving premium tax credits to make health insurance more affordable. More than 3.1 million young adults have access to health insurance by remaining on their parents' plans until age 26. Millions more Americans have secured new coverage through Medicaid expansion.

Rather than decreasing or taking away, the Republican leadership and all of us ought to be increasing and providing. We ought to be affording individuals the opportunity to get insurance because they are unemployed--to get a check. So it is amazing that rather than giving, we would be talking about taking, taking away, when the law says and all of us know that everybody ought to have access to quality health care.

I oppose this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge the thousands of dentists and volunteers who participate in the ``Give Kids A Smile Day.'' Each February, Illinois dentists donate more than $1 million in much-needed dental care to children. Many families cannot afford to provide their children with regular dental care. This can not only result in potentially serious health problems but is also likely to serve as an impediment to economic success. The unfortunate truth is that individuals with unhealthy looking teeth are less likely to be hired than those with better oral health. Furthermore, an inability to obtain dental care can adversely affect children before they even enter the job market--dental pain can affect both sleep patterns and school performance. Inadequate dental care is not a cosmetic concern; it has a real impact on a person's economic mobility and success.

I commend the American Dental Association for its tireless efforts to raise awareness and develop solutions so more people can receive dental care. Since the ADA's ``Give Kids A Smile'' program was founded twelve years ago in St. Louis, it has grown to become the world's largest oral health charitable program--encouraging parents, health professionals and policymakers to address the year-round need for oral health care for all children. Each year, thousands of the nation's dentists, dental team members and community volunteers provide free oral health care services to children from low-income families.

This February in Illinois, over 2,000 dental care professionals volunteered for ``Give Kids A Smile Day,'' reaching upwards of 17,000 kids. Dentists in Illinois have demonstrated their commitment to giving back to the community. In June 2014, the Illinois State Dental Society and its Foundation will hold the third ``Illinois Mission of Mercy'' in Peoria, Illinois. The Mission of Mercy is a free, two-day dental clinic during which over 950 volunteers see 1,000 patients each day and provide over $1 million in much-needed oral health care.

I would like to thank all the dental professionals who have volunteered their time this year to provide screenings, treatments and education to children throughout the United States. I urge my colleagues to support the ADA's efforts to improve the lives and expand opportunities for our nation's children.

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

I am pleased to join my colleague from Illinois in the discussion and debate of H.R. 2530, the Taxpayer Transparency and Efficient Audit Act.

Since 2010, the Internal Revenue Service's total budget has declined by 8 percent. This may not sound like much except that the number of individual tax returns has gone up by 11 percent, and the number of business tax returns has gone up by 23 percent. What happens when you combine a larger workload with fewer employees? You get more unanswered mail, more unreturned phone calls, and the closing of taxpayer assistance centers around the country.

I recently had the pleasure of welcoming the new Internal Revenue Service Commissioner, John Koskinen, to the Ways and Means Committee. He painted a very bleak picture of the challenges the agency is facing.

Over the same 4-year period that the Internal Revenue Service's budget has been slashed, the number of phone calls the agency receives has gone up by 40 percent. Over 100 million calls were placed by taxpayers to the Internal Revenue Service last year, and nearly 20 million of those calls went unanswered because the IRS did not have enough employees to answer them.

The Internal Revenue Service's ability to process taxpayer correspondence has taken a similar hit. The IRS tries to respond to taxpayer correspondence within 45 days. During the final week of fiscal year 2013, the IRS was unable to process 53 percent of its letters within the 45-day timeframe, and the open inventory of unanswered letters stood at 1.1 million.

Mr. Speaker, the bill before us requires the Internal Revenue Service to provide written responses to taxpayers within 30 days. That is simply an impossibility given the current funding levels. The Republicans can't have it both ways.

You can't both complain about the IRS' not answering its mail within 30 days and then demand that its budget be cut at the same time.

Of course, the Internal Revenue Service would have more resources to spend on taxpayers if they were not wasting time and money responding to the Republicans' infinite document request. According to the latest letter from the Internal Revenue Service, dated February 7, 2014, over 150 IRS personnel have worked for a total of more than 79,000 hours to respond to ongoing congressional investigations. They have produced more than a half a million pages of documents, have had more than 60 transcribed interviews taken of IRS employees, and have answered questions at 14 congressional hearings.

Enough is enough. It is time for the Internal Revenue Service to get back to its primary mission of administering taxpayer services.

Mr. Speaker, I am also concerned about the provision in the bill that calls for audits to be completed within 1 year. This will create an incentive for criminals to try and delay any audit or investigation by the Internal Revenue Service to try and ``run out the clock'' so that they can avoid their taxes. We would not say that if you can avoid a criminal investigation for 1 year that your crime will be forgiven. So why would we say that for cheating on your taxes? Our constituents expect us to provide a level playing field when it comes to the Tax Code, and the Republicans should not tilt that playing field towards tax cheats in the pursuit of their November preelection strategy.

Finally, Mr. Speaker, I am concerned that all of this legislation designed to hurt the Internal Revenue Service instead places the burden most directly on the elderly, the poor, and the disabled. They are the ones who are most likely to need the services from the Internal Revenue Service that they can no longer find. This is not just a problem for the Internal Revenue Service or for taxpayers but also for this Congress. When our constituents cannot get the help they need and deserve from a Federal agency, they turn to us. It is not just the Commissioner who has called for more resources but also the IRS Oversight Board, the Taxpayer Advocate, and the Treasury inspector general.

I am hopeful that this Congress will listen. These are our constituents who need us.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time and am prepared to close. I will end with just two things.

I certainly appreciate the instructions as well as the passion from my colleague from Illinois, and I want every agency of our government to be as efficient as it possibly can and should be.

One of the things that we have learned is that you can't get blood out of a turnip.

You can squeeze it; you can tease it; you can do everything to it that you want to, but it will still end up being blood.

The other thing that I will end with is this month we celebrate African American History Month. I am reminded of something that Frederick Douglass said:

In this world, we may not get everything that we pay for,

but we most certainly must pay for everything that we get.

I maintain that we must have the adequate resources that are needed for employees to do their jobs in a timely and efficient manner. And so I appreciate the comments of my colleague. I appreciate his passion.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Coming from the same and neighboring communities and State as my colleague, we agree on many things. We all agree that the Internal Revenue Service should not ask about your religious, political, or social beliefs in determining your taxpayer status. That is different, however, from asking you about your political activities, which was at the root of the Internal Revenue Service's mismanagement of the 501(c)(4) applications.

The IRS did the right thing in trying to group together applications by activity, but they were wrong in using party names and labels from both Democrats and Republicans in their organizational process.

The division that was the subject of the May 2013 TIGTA report was grossly mismanaged in that it allowed these applications to be selected by name and then allowed them to sit for an inordinate length of time. Swift corrective action was taken to remove the ineffective management, and the subsequent IRS leadership has put the agency on the right path to restoring the public trust.

There has never been any evidence of political motivation or influence from anyone either inside or outside the IRS. Treasury's inspector general repeatedly testified that he found no evidence of political motivation in the selection of processing of tax exemption applications that were the subject of his report. Indeed, an extensive review of 5,500 employee emails by the TIGTA Office of Investigations concluded that there was no political motivation in trying to group these applications.

At the end of the day, Mr. Speaker, what we saw was a small division of a very large agency that struggled to determine how to handle tax- exempt applications from politically motivated groups. Consequently, they allowed those applications to sit for an inordinate amount of time while it tried to determine what criteria to use to judge who determined tax-exempt status.

We also had a flawed TIGTA report that deliberately removed any reference to Progressive and Democratic groups from the criteria the IRS actually used to group applications together and consequently presented a one-sided and partisan conclusion about this issue to Congress.

What we do not have is any evidence of political motivation in the processing of tax exemption applications or any evidence of outside influence in the selection or processing of tax exemption applications.

Mr. Speaker, I think enough is enough. It is time for us to move on to processing issues like extending long-term unemployment insurance benefits, raising the minimum wage, and fixing our immigration laws. Let us give the American people some confidence that their Congress can debate and pass bills on these important issues.

Yes, there was activity that took place which is unacceptable. The individuals have been removed from those positions. Let us take the Internal Revenue Service and move it on to higher heights, giving the American people that each and every citizen is treated fairly, with respect, and with the dignity that all of us deserve as citizens of this great Nation.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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

You know, I think with the IRS, we are, like, approaching a fork in the middle of the road and we have choices that we can make.

We now have new leadership. The agency has been sanitized. The individuals with culpability are no longer there. They no longer play in any leadership roles at all.

The new Commissioner has given us every assurance, and he comes to the IRS with an impeccable record from both public and private activity, and has given every assurance that can be given that he is going to take that road that leads to the highest level of integrity, that we can bank on the Internal Revenue Service being as fair as fair can be.

I like to believe that he means what he says, and that he says what he means. So I am confident that we have a new IRS, and we will see it function with a new light, a new spirit, and a new direction.

So I thank my colleague. I have no further requests for time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, cutting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will adversely affect poor people and lower benefits to households with children. SNAP helps families obtain nutritious and healthy foods. This anti-hunger program is immensely effective in providing assistance to a minimum of 46 million individuals and families across America. In addition to food benefits, SNAP educates ways to use food dollars wisely and live a healthier lifestyle by promoting the importance of nutrition. A key component of SNAP is their ``No Kid Hungry'' campaign, which, aims at fighting against childhood hunger in America by partnering with communities to enroll eligible families with half of the program recipients being children. Reducing spending over the next few years by billions of dollars will affect the lives of Americans who depend on these programs to help put food on the table for their families.

Currently, the legislative language included in the House farm bill, would develop unintended consequences resulting in ancillary hardships to our neediest population. Given our nation's economic recovery, high unemployment rate, and the wide prevalence of food insecurity among children, all are directly problematic to the SNAP program. Every $1 in SNAP new benefits would generate up to $1.80 in economic activity. Every time a family uses SNAP benefits for healthy food on the table, it benefits the store and the employees where the purchase was made including the truck driver who delivered the food, the warehouses that stored it, the plant that processed it, and the farmer who produced the food. Each $1 billion increase in SNAP benefits is estimated to create and maintain 18,000 full time jobs including 3,000 farm jobs. SNAP benefits have a powerful anti-poverty effect that the Census Bureau reports would lift 3.9 million Americans--including 1.7 million children--out of poverty. SNAP alleviates hunger and improves nutrition by increasing the food purchasing power of low-income households, enabling them to obtain a more nutritious diet that contributes to the prevention of obesity, diseases, and food insecurity.

Cutting funding is a threat to SNAP's mission to alleviate the health problems many children face in America. Studies indicate that children who are provided with healthier food are less likely to develop health problems and more likely to excel better in school. Sixty-two percent of teachers in a survey said that they have children in their classrooms that come to school hungry regularly because they are not getting enough food to eat at home.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to a dear friend and colleague who passed away a few days ago.

Trying to describe Earlean Lindsey for me is not very easy. She was not quite old enough to have been my mother, although she was ``mother like.'' She was like a big sister. She and Nola Bright would look after me at conferences and conventions, make sure that I ate lunch, had some milk, and did not drink too much alcohol.

I got to know her family, her children, and grandchildren. I want to thank them for inviting me to participate in her funeral services. They know that Earlean and I were confidants; we were like family.

She was my boss for about 15 years during a period when I worked formally as executive director of the Westside Health Planning Organization. She was the board chairman. She was my running buddy and traveling companion. We went all over the United States of America helping to organize and implement program concepts and initiatives of the war on poverty, which grew out of the civil rights movement--the marches, the demonstrations, the Johnson era.

She was with Ernie and Gloria Jenkins, Ma Fletcher, Reverend Carter, Bertram Mims, Leahmon Reed, Hats Adams, John Harris, Joseph Rosen, Warner Saunders, and others when we organized the Westside Association for Community Action.

Earlean was steeped in her church, her family. She believed in God and in education. Earlean was the education leader for what in the mid- seventies and eighties we called District 8 and District 9 in Chicago. In a way, she was responsible for a Black West Side resident being appointed to the Chicago Board of Education.

Earlean was one of several Black women on the West Side that we called our leaders, women like Illinois Daggett; Rachael Ridley; Beatrice Ward; Ida Mae ``Ma'' Fletcher; Mary Alice ``Ma'' Henry; Nancy Jefferson, who headed the Midwest Community Council; Julia Fairfax; Brenetta Howell Barrett; Gloria Pughsley; Belle Whaley; Rose Marie Love; Rosie Lee Betts; Lucy Jean Lewis; Vivian Stewart Tyler; Reverend Janice Sharpe; Reverend Helen Cooper; Martha Marshall; Commissioner Earlean Collins; Congresswoman Cardiss Collins; Alderwomen Deborah Graham and Emma Mitts; Representative Camille Lilly; Viola Thomas; Senator Patricia Van Pelt; Commissioner Barbara McGowan; Commissioner Iola McGowan; Mrs. Lillian Drummond; Mrs. Juanita Rutues; Mrs. Lucinda Ware; Mrs. Irene Norwood; Representative Annazette Collins; Mrs. Vera Davis; Mrs. Mamie Bone; Mrs. Devera Beverly; Mrs. Artensia Randolph; Senator Kimberly Lightford; Recorder of Deeds Karen Yarborough; Mayor Edwina Perkins of Maywood, Illinois; Ms. Barbara Minor; Mrs. Gus Cunningham; and countless other women who have provided leadership and have been actively involved in the struggle for self-direction, community improvement, and self-determination.

Earlean went to city hall, the State House, and the White House. Through her interactions she walked with kings and queens but never lost the common touch.

Earlean's two main issues were health care and education. She was a founding member of the Mile Square Health Center and the National Association of Community Health Centers.

I remember a meeting we were having at the University of Illinois School of Public Health, and as people introduced themselves or were introduced, they would always be introduced as ``doctor'' or they would say John Smith, MSW, or Joy Jones, FACHA.

When it came Earlean's time, she said that I am Mrs. Earlean Lindsey, CSTA. There were a group of medical students present. One of them raised their hand and said, could I ask Mrs. Lindsey a question? Earlean said, gladly. She said, can you tell me what your degree stands for, CSTA? I have never heard of that one. Earlean said, common sense, talent, and ambition.

That is who Earlean was and that is what Earlean has always been-- strong, talented, compassionate, outspoken, bossy, sensitive, caring, tireless, fearless. Long live the life and long live the legacy of Earlean Lindsey. If she was here right now, I am sure she would join with Representative Jim McGovern and say, don't cut SNAP.

Earlean, may you rest in peace.

Mr. Speaker, you know, the Good Book says that man does not live by bread alone, but I can tell you, if you don't have any, and if you don't have any milk, and you don't have any baby food, and you don't have all of those essentials that provide good nutrition, then you don't live healthy.

I urge my colleagues, let's not cut SNAP. Let's not take food out of the mouths of those who are hungry. Let's make sure that they can not only have bread, but milk and cheese and everything else that goes with it.