[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 62 (Tuesday, May 13, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H2498]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       REFORMING THE WIC PROGRAM REQUIRES BIPARTISAN COOPERATION

  (Mr. RIGGS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. RIGGS. Mr. Speaker, I heard the gentleman from New Jersey, our 
colleague, talk about the women's, infants' and children's program, so 
I wanted to take the floor just to explain for a moment that through 
the years the WIC Program, as it is known, has received strong 
bipartisan support from both Republicans and Democrats because of its 
effectiveness in reducing low weight births and reducing birth defects 
resulting from nutritional deficiencies during pregnancy.
  The administration did request $76 million for additional enrollments 
in the WIC Program as part of the supplemental appropriations bill that 
will be on the floor tomorrow, and that bill actually contains half of 
the administration's request, $38 million.
  I am going to offer an amendment to restore the other $38 million, 
but with a caveat, that being that later this fall in the committee 
that I chair on children, youth, and families, we are going to be 
looking at a number of structural and policy issues associated with 
this program, why it must have $100 million in carryover funds, why the 
administration has asked for an additional $100 million on our 
contingency funds in their 1998 budget request.
  I hope we can get the same sort of bipartisan support and cooperation 
on the necessary policy reforms to the WIC Program as I suspect we will 
on my amendment to the supplemental appropriations bill tomorrow.

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