thank you, tianna.ice and make sure that policymakers especially hear what it means to juggle and to live on such minimal wages. here you are working and your husband's working and you're living off barely $16,000 a year. i mean, that is a shame and disgrace. we've got to do better. i tell you, when republicans respond like that, it's almost as if they're living in another world. first of all, mthe majority of people such as tianna who need a safety net to help them, it's a bridge over troubled water. the majority of people don't want public assistance. they want to work. they want a good paying job. this recession has hit especially women and people of color in a very tragic way. it's been disproportionate. the unemployment rate, once again, is double digit -- excuse me, double what it is in the white community for african-americans and latinos. and so you have to really look at all of the issues around work. first of all, we haven't created enough jobs. secondly, we haven't created enough training pro

why don't i start with you, tianna. the cliff. i'm really interested in what you mean when you talk about the cliff. and you've said before, you've given this example about, if you babysit for a friend for 40 bucks you can lose your welfare check. a lot of these programs are layered on top of each other, not necessarily in congruence with each other, connected to each other. and so you have this situation where you could have just a cold cut-off of benefits if you take a step forward and earn some money. give me a sense of how you see this cliff and what it does to people, kind of the wrong incentives it gives. more importantly, do you have any ideas about a better way of coordinating them? do you think we should better coordinate these things and have a shooter system so that people aren't faced with these cliffs? what kinds of decisions is this forcing upon people? >> it's very strenuous. it doesn't encourage people to be able to have savings accounts. i when they stack their money because they're scared the case worker is going

tianna gaines-turner. first, i was happy to meet tianna. we got to meet earlier and i am happy to hear her testimony. i will quote from her previous testimony because i think she hit the nail on the head. "poverty is not just one issue that can be solved at one time. it is just not an issue of jobs or food or housing or assistance and safety. it is a people issue a you cannot slice people up into issues. we are whole human beings. poverty has to do with a whole person who is in a family, a neighborhood. " i cannot have said it better myself. that is right. for too long the federal government has treated people as numbers. that is why i'm excited to hear from heather reynolds. she is doing great work in fort worth. she is putting together a pilot project about expanding opportunities for working families. ms. reynolds program sees people as a whole human beings who deserve time and care and not just a client to usher through the door. and the results speak for themselves. in 2013, 90 percent of the people and the refugee program but came sel

committee came face to face with the struggles of poverty when they listened to the experience of tiannaotograph right here is a photo of my children. my children are everything to me. i would like to say that we need to break the cycle. we need to make sure that we all remember what the american dream is. values, family values. i'm not a number, i'm not a statistic, i'm not a food stamp recipient. i'm an individual who happens to be right now struggling. just as so many americans are struggling. we need to get back to the core values and remembering we are people. we don't want to be looked at as being lazy and wanting to collect benefits. when my day starts at 7:00 a.m., i never wake up and say i want to be on public assistance. the food stamp program is very important. but no one wakes up and says we want to stand in line for two hours at a food pantry. i would like to say, and i knoll food stamp is also very important part of my life. it helps me and my husband make sure that we can feed my children. my husband gets paid every week, and he makes $8.25 an hour. after taxes he clears m

member of the budget committee, at the request of congresswoman barbara lee of california, invited tianna gaines-turner to testify before the budget committee last week. chairman paul ryan has held five hearings and this is the first time a poor person actually testified before the committee. it's amazing that it took so long to hear from a person who is actually trying to dig herself and her family out of poverty. that'sed good news. if you want to hear the -- that's the good news. if you want to hear the bad news, you ought to hear some of the questions she endured at the hands of our colleagues. we need to hear more from people like ms. gaines-turner and work harder to end hunger in america. i'll close by saying to my colleagues, the poor in america are more than statistics. they are real people. they are real people. and it's long past time that this congress make their plight a priority. with that i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. pursuant to clause 12-a of rule 1, the chair declares the house in recess until 2:00 p.m. today. her

we're also going to hear from an especially important voice, miss tianna gains turner. first, miss gains turner, i was happy to meet you in the rayburn room off the side of the floor. i'm excited to hear her testimony. in fact i want to quote from her previous written testimony because i think she hits the nail on the head. "poverty is not just one issue that can be solved at one time. it's not just an issue of jobs or food or housing or energy assistance and safety. it's a people issue. and you can't slice people up into issues. we are whole human beings. poverty has to do with a whole person who is in a family in a neighborhood in a community." i couldn't have said it better myself. i think that's exactly right. for too long the federal government has treated people as numbers. instead of whole people with wholly connected needs. that is why i'm excited to hear from heather reynolds, president of catholic charities of ft. worth. miss reynolds is doing great work in ft. worth. she's putting together a pilot project to test how case management can expand opportunities f