House Minority Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries held a press conference yesterday in Brooklyn, NY.
Jeffries was Tuesday’s KVML “Newsmaker of the Day”. Here are his words:
“These are very challenging times that we confront, and we know that people are struggling with the high cost of living in our community, in our city and across the country. And no one in America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, should ever go hungry. No one. But we know, unfortunately, that the reality is very different. And that we’ve got some forces within the government who, instead of addressing the fact that there are millions of people in our country who are food insecure, are making things worse.
Earlier this year, there were a group of people who passed what we refer to as the One Big Ugly Bill. And in it, not only did they rip away Medicaid from 14 million people, triggering a wave of hospitals, nursing homes and community-based health centers closing, setting that painful reality in motion. In the same toxic piece of legislation, they enacted the largest cut to SNAP in American history, ripping $186 billion in nutritional assistance from hungry children, seniors, families and veterans. It was a shameful thing, and we’re working hard, and we’ll continue to do everything possible until we get those toxic SNAP cuts reversed. Until we get them reversed.
We know in the midst of this affordability crisis, people are struggling with housing, people are struggling with healthcare and people are struggling with food, and having to make decisions about whether to put food on the table, pay the rent, get access to the medicine that they need to live a dignified life. That’s unacceptable in this great country. It’s also one of the reasons why we’re so thankful for St. John’s Bread and Life, for the Food Bank and for the work of these great organizations that we will continue to support. Thankful for what they do during the holiday season, but this is work that is done each and every day, each and every month, year after year. And as the Member of Congress from this great community, I pledge to continue hard to support it.
Last thing that I’d mention is that in this community—proud to have grown up in Crown Heights, continue to go to church in Bedford-Stuyvesant, right down the block where my grandmother lived for a long period of time—that we’ve seen tremendous progress as it relates to some of the violence issues that our community has suffered throughout the years, homicides and gang-related violence and things of that nature. And we know there’s still progress to be made in those areas. But it’s always been the case that in our community, right here in central Brooklyn, that more people have always died from drive-thrus than drive-bys. It’s always been the case. More people in our community have died from drive-thrus than drive-bys because of the lack of access to affordable, healthy food, triggering a wide variety of illnesses, from hypertension, high blood pressure, diabetes, other forms of heart disease, obesity that creates all sorts of health complications. More people in our community continue, and it’s always been true, have died from lack of access to healthy food, fruits and vegetables, nutritious meals that is affordable, than they have from gun violence or other things that have plagued our neighborhoods. That’s why making sure that we continue to support organizations like St. John’s Bread and Life, Food Bank for New York City and others will continue to be a high priority until we can bring about the moment in this great community, in the city, in this country, where not a single family ever goes hungry.
God bless you, and Happy Thanksgiving.”
The “Newsmaker of the Day” is heard every weekday morning at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 on AM 1450 and FM 102.7 KVML.
