[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 47 (Tuesday, March 14, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H3128-H3129]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                IN THE FRONT LINES WITH THE WIC PROGRAM
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Lucas). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Oregon [Mr. DeFazio] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman who preceded me in the well 
talked about the front lines. I do not know where he was yesterday, but 
I was at the front lines. I went and visited a WIC program in 
Springfield, my hometown in Springfield, OR.
  Apparently the gentleman is quite unfamiliar with the programs. They 
are run by local boards. In fact, the chairman of the board of our 
local WIC program is a Republican lawyer who a couple of years ago 
thought about running against me. So there is an incredible amount of 
discretion and weight given to local control.
  What did I not see at the WIC program yesterday? I did not see this: 
I did not see a low-birthweight baby who was suffering tremendously and 
who was going to be an extraordinary expense all paid for out of the 
other pocket of the taxpayers, by Medicaid. I did not see one of these 
yesterday.
  But what I did see were a bunch of healthy kids and some parents 
coming from a whole bunch of different circumstances. I want to talk 
just a little bit about that.
  I saw a teen mom yesterday, a category of recipient who would be cut 
off from benefits in the Ozzie and Harriet world of the other side of 
the aisle. We should not have teenage pregnancies, and, by God, if they 
have them, they are not going to get any benefits.
  What is going to happen to the baby in that world? You want to punish 
the teenager. What about the baby? I do not even think you should be 
punishing the teenager. A little counseling is a little more in order. 
I met a teen mom, and she had gotten some of that counseling at that 
WIC program. Counseling is one of the things cut off under the 
Republican block-grant proposal. You will give them the food vouchers 
still, but you will not get the nutrition counseling. They taught here 
how to breast-feed her little baby, and they were there yesterday, and 
they were a testimony to how well this program works.
  I saw a working mom with two kids. She is working, a single parent, 
but she qualified for the WIC program, and you know what, her kids had 
nutritional problems. They both had a problem with dairy. They had 
dairy sensitivity. She did not know how to deal with it. She did not 
have the wherewithal to 
[[Page H3129]] deal with it. She went to the WIC program, and got 
nutrition counseling. She got a diet. I saw those two kids yesterday. 
They are beautiful kids. They are thriving now through the WIC program.
  They talk a lot about fraud and abuse. There are no allegations of 
fraud and abuse in the WIC program. People get vouchers for a healthy 
diet.
  You know, there are allegations, substantial allegations, in the food 
stamp program. What is very interesting is the Republicans originally 
proposed to block grant the food stamp program. But you know what, they 
backed off, not because they did not want to get at the $3 billion of 
fraud and abuse. I believe they want to get at that as much as I do and 
the organized crime. But because Safeway and A&P and Stop and Shop and 
all the farm lobby came in and said, ``You can't do that to us.''
  Now, WIC unfortunately, the Women, Infants, and Children's Program, 
low-birthweight babies, the nursing moms, they do not have those kinds 
of lobbyists, the same kind of lobbyists Safeway has or the agriculture 
groups have.
  So food stamps is back on with ineffective measures to deal with the 
$3 billion of fraud and abuse, but WIC is on the chopping block. It is 
going into a block grant program about 80 percent of the funding it 
gets now, and 20 percent of that money can be diverted by the Governor 
of any State to any other purpose they want. And they tell me, ``Don't 
worry, the WIC program won't be hurt.'' Well, there is an unmet need in 
my hometown of Springfield, OR, and I know there are unmet needs in 
many other towns across America, and the WIC program is one of the most 
cost-effective ways of meeting that need.
  I met another gentleman, a man, who was there with his baby. He and 
his wife, both college graduates, both employed, but in the current job 
market they are not making a lot of money; they are having a little 
trouble making ends meet. They are new parents. They qualified for the 
WIC program. They are getting nutritional supplements for their baby, 
and they have learned a lot about parenting through this program.
  I met another woman there whose child had had a routine pinprick 
blood test. They do that to the kids who come into the program to see 
if they have any deficiencies. They discovered that that child had
 childhood leukemia, and the child is now in treatment.

  But this program in their world will not be required to exist anymore 
because of all of the Federal bureaucrats mandating so many things. I 
was there yesterday. I did not see any Federal bureaucrats. I saw a 
bunch of healthy, happy kids. I saw a bunch of parents who were doing 
better and getting just a little bit of help, and most everybody there 
was working. Funny thing, given the current minimum wage; and how well 
do you think you can provide for a family of four? That is why we have 
the Women, Infants, Children Program.
  What does one low-birthweight baby cost, both in terms of trauma to 
the parents, both in terms of developmental disabilities for that 
child, both in terms of cost to the Medicaid program? Is it too much to 
ask that we continue the Women, Infants, Children's feeding program and 
prevent those low-birthweight babies? I do not think so. And I think 
America can afford that.

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