[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 55 (Thursday, May 1, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H2098]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               IN SUPPORT OF PRESIDENT'S REQUEST FOR WIC

  (Ms. DeLAURO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I would like to respond to a letter printed 
in this morning's New York Times by my friend and my colleague from the 
other side of the aisle, the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Kingston]. The 
gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Kingston] writes that the President's 
request for $76 million in funds for the women, infants and children 
program is based on old census data.
  The statement is simply inaccurate. The $76 million figure is based 
on numbers submitted from the States to the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture in early April of this year. These are not House Member 
numbers. These are not administration numbers. These are the numbers 
from the united States in this country. These numbers are in fact only 
a few weeks old. More importantly, these figures indicate that without 
the full $76 million requested by the President, 360,000 women and 
children will be removed from the WIC Program.
  Does the majority party really want to take milk, cereal, and formula 
off the breakfast tables of thousands of needy families? I do not think 
so.
  Democrats are united in our opposition to the WIC reductions. I urge 
my Republican colleagues to join us in voting to restore the full 
amount of the President's request for WIC.

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