Providing for Consideration of H.R. 2112
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Mrs. LUMMIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to focus on what this bill does and what it does not do.
First of all, it increases spending because mandatory programs are growing. The mandatory programs, like SNAP and Child Nutrition, are growing so rapidly that they exceed the cuts in the discretionary programs in this bill. So while my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are talking about the dreadful calamity associated with the cuts in this bill, the fact of the matter is food programs get more money under this bill, and that's because they are mandatory programs. The committee has no control over them. The only thing we have control over are the discretionary programs.
SNAP is projected to grow almost $6 billion, and Child Nutrition is projected to cost an additional $1.45 billion. Now, those and other mandatory spending add up to an additional $282 million over the costs of fiscal year 2012. So to call this a cut is not acknowledging the additional spending that is mandatory and that is in the SNAP program and the Child Nutrition Program.
Now, we, as Members of Congress, who are facing 1.2, 1.3 trillion more dollars in spending every year than we take in and are racking up 14, soon to be more, trillion dollars in debt, this year we have now exceeded, in our national debt, the entire GDP of this country for 1 year.
We cannot go on like this. We're destroying the country with spending. That's the moral imperative that we're discussing today.
Consequently, let's keep our eye on the ball. We're not destroying spending for people in need. We're actually increasing it, $6 billion for SNAP and almost $1.5 billion for Child Nutrition. We've saved it in other areas. The Agriculture Committee's budget includes a variety of priorities, including traditional agriculture spending like research, animal and plant health and conservation, nutrition, food aid and safety, rural development, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Spreading funding across this spectrum is a balancing act, and I would like to thank Chairman Kingston for his leadership on this bill.
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