[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 53 (Wednesday, March 22, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H3550]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                            CHILD NUTRITION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Klink] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KLINK. Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to rise today to speak on the 
same topic of child nutrition and really again say that so much of what 
we are talking about, Mr. Speaker, I can remember sitting on a picket 
line many years ago when I was a news reporter, and the company that 
was being picketed had said they were going to open their books to the 
striking workers, and I asked one of the grizzled old union fellows who 
was out there, I said, ``You know we can go in there and take a look at 
those figures.'' This striker looked at me and said, ``Well, you know, 
figures don't lie but liars sure know how to figure.''
  And let me say a lot of the rhetoric I have heard from the other side 
of the aisle would remind me you can shuffle figures any way you want 
to, but the bottom line is when you take a look at the proposal of 
child nutrition we have given a whole new meaning to the term women and 
children first. We are whacking women, we are whacking children, and we 
will see more children going hungry because of this welfare proposal 
that is being put forward by the majority side.
                              {time}  2310

  There is not any doubt about that.
  You talk about increases, 4.5-percent increase, yes, there are 
increases. But they do not account for the fact that food prices are 
going to go up. They do not account for the fact that in most of our 
districts we are seeing an increase in the number of children coming 
into the schools. They do not account for the fact that is spots 
throughout this country, we currently, because the Federal Government 
has the ability to adjust when there are recessions in certain areas, 
when there is a high rate of unemployment in a certain area, to get 
that additional funding in there.
  We are going to see under a block grant program for child nutrition 
far less money going in to provide the same level of food that we have 
today. Five million children across this country are going hungry today 
under the current system. You are right. The current system does not 
work. It needs to be tweaked, but not giving as much food, not 
accounting for inflation, not accounting for increased enrollment, not 
being able to move food where it is needed is certainly not the answer.
  I was just at a school in my district on Monday with leader Dick 
Gephardt, who happened to be coming through our area. It happens to be 
in Aliquippa, PA; now, Beaver County, in which Aliquippa is located, is 
of those counties in what we commonly refer to now as the Rust Belt of 
our Nation, that saw a tremendous decrease in the number of jobs in the 
1970's and 1980's. In fact, in 13 counties in southwestern 
Pennsylvania, we have seen a loss of 155,000 manufacturing jobs, and it 
just so happens that Aliquippa is one of those towns that was hit the 
hardest. In one day in 1982 they lost 15,000 jobs in one small town 
when one steel mill went down, a 7\1/2\-mile-long steel mill along the 
Ohio River shut down in 1 day.
  Mr. Speaker, I will tell you that causes a lot of problems. Those 
problems persist today. But through hard work we have begun to get some 
reinvestment back in that county. We are beginning to see some of those 
steel industries not adding 15,000 jobs at one whack, but adding a few 
hundred here, a few hundred there, and our industry is coming back.
  At a time when there is a ray of hope, we are going to tell these 
children in Aliquippa, 80 percent
 of whom qualify for free or reduced meals, that we are going to change 
the rules on them now. Many of these kids who are eligible for free or 
reduced-cost breakfasts, and the teachers will tell you they cannot 
teach children that cannot eat, and they will tell you on Monday 
morning many of these children come in and they are famished. You can 
tell that they have not had adequate meals over the weekend, and the 
parents will tell you that they have children that they have to depend 
on the free and reduced meals, and that block-granting will not get it, 
that the ability to take 20 percent out of the block grant to pave 
roads, to build sewers, to lay water lines is not going to put food in 
the mouths of these children.

  They will tell you that children do not vote, and there is going to 
be a temptation in 50 States across this Nation for some people to 
decide to take more of that money out of child nutrition and put it 
into projects where people do vote.
  What are we going to have, Mr. Speaker? Are we going to have 50 
different social laboratories across this Nation? Fifty different 
social laboratories where we attempt to see if we are able to do a 
better job than the Federal Government?
  Surely, Mr. Speaker, there are people in States that are going to do 
a better job, but there are some that are going to do worse.
  This is not something that we want to risk.
  

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