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




                        CHILD NUTRITION PROGRAMS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Ney] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. NEY. Mr. Speaker, once again, I think we have to make the facts 
known, especially in light of the last speaker. We are not cutting this 
program. We are increasing this program.
  Here are the charts. Now, that chart is a hypothetical, what if, and 
I guess I could say that in an expenditure where we would 
hypothetically have $20 billion or $30 billion to care for some type of 
children's program, I could say we should have $60 billion to care for 
it, so we have really shortened and shortchanged that program. That is 
what this chart is. That is exactly what this chart is.
  The fact remains we are increasing it. Something I am going to agree 
about with the last speaker about a successful program. yesterday I was 
in Zanesville, OH, Muskingum County, Mr. Speaker, and the people that 
run the WIC program were in, and it is a successful program, and it is 
a good program, and I believe that we have recognized that time and 
time again. We are recognizing it again and again and again by saying 
we
 believe in it and we are going to increase it, and here is the chart 
that tells we are going to do it.

  So we have not said it is a bad program. We have no question of the 
effectiveness of the program. We have no question how it has helped 
people.
  But I have got to tell you, they call this the well. They ought to 
rename it the swamp, because I think we get to a low point when we come 
in and bring a picture in and try to say that by increasing this we are 
going to do harm to children. I think that is absolutely ridiculous.
  Let us state the facts as they are, and the fact is that it has been 
a good program. The fact is that the new way to do the WIC program does 
not take away counseling, as the last speaker told you, Mr. Speaker. It 
does not, because nothing changes in this program.
  The question of where are we going to live up to the food standards, 
we do, Mr. Speaker, live up to the food standards, because that is also 
taken care of through this program.
  But it is a bigger picture, and the bottom line in this country, Mr. 
Speaker, is that tomorrow morning everyone in this country looks into 
the mirror and sees the face of the human being that is morally 
responsible as to whether our children live in a country that is safe, 
prosperous, and secure.
  So we all have to ask ourselves, Mr. Speaker, as we look into our 
faces in the mirror, Members of Congress and people throughout this 
country, are we doing the best job to make sure that this country is 
safe, prosperous, and secure for our children? And I answer we are. But 
not just in how we revise this program to take the Federal bureaucratic 
end of it out, but in the overall picture of what we are also doing is 
stepping up to the plate and balancing this Nation's budget, of trying 
to reempower families to help them by reempowering them to make 
decisions, and this is what it is all about. It is a bigger picture.
  Because what we have done in this country by letting Washington 
remain the same old, same old, time after time, is we have let a 
bureaucracy build up, and as I told people from the WIC organization 
yesterday, we have let it build up to the point if we do not take 
control now of this deficit, if we do not take back control and 
reempower families out in the heartland, Mr. Speaker, in this country, 
we are not going to have to worry about charts on either side of this 
aisle, because there is not going to be anything left. We will have 
nothing to leave our children. When we look in the mirror, we are going 
to know we did not leave our children with a safe country. We did not 
leave our children in prosperity. And we did not leave, Mr. Speaker, 
our children with peace.
  So not only are we doing the right thing, not only are we increasing 
this, we are also looking at a bigger overall picture to restabilize 
this government, to reempower where it counts, in the hands of the 
citizenry, Mr. Speaker.
  And with that, I think we have just got to stay to the facts and quit 
using scare tactics from this side of the swamp, not the well, to use 
this type of scare tactic. We should speak to the reality of what we 
are trying to do, to make a better America, and that is what we are. We 
are sending our message, Mr. Speaker, to you tonight and to our 
colleagues, and we know that if we work together in the bigger picture, 
we are going to give back to families their dignity and give back to 
families their ability to help empower themselves for a better future.


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