[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 62 (Tuesday, May 13, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H2568]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            REPUBLICAN TACTICS HURT WEAKEST OF OUR CITIZENS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Alabama [Mr. Hilliard] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HILLIARD. Mr. Speaker, this week the Republican Congress will 
officially take food out of the mouths of babies when they follow the 
lead of the House Committee on Appropriations. Last week this 
Republican-controlled committee cut the women, infants and children 
nutrition program. If the Congress follows their lead, many poor, 
helpless, underrepresented and overly persecuted American citizens will 
be without the necessities of life.
  Mr. Speaker, the full House of Representatives will soon vote on this 
bill which, if passed, will cause a cut in WIC nutrition programs of 
180,000 women, infants and children who would have to go without food 
and medicine. These proposed cuts in this program are not fancy frills, 
but basic staples of life: food and medicine.
  I understand the desire of certain Members of this Congress who 
believe in cutting programs to balance the budget. However, let me 
assure my colleagues that this is one of the most noble Federal 
programs that we have ever funded.
  Mr. Speaker, I would understand the opposition if the WIC Program 
were a typical pork barrel project, but it is not. It is not even the 
equivalent of the recent legislative luxuries proposed by the 
Republican's own plan to grant a monstrously large and obscene tax 
break for the Nation's most wealthy.
  The WIC Program allocates nothing but bottom line necessities of 
life: food, nutritious programs and, yes, medicine, the very essential 
necessities of life.
  What on Earth could be objectionable about these programs? It is not 
a program for the able, it is not a program that feeds foreign kids. It 
is a program that feeds hungry children here in America. It is a 
program that protects pregnant women here in America. It is a program 
that benefits Americans.
  Mr. Speaker, these infants who are on the WIC Program do not need to 
be hurt or harassed by this Congress. They need help. Not only is the 
House Committee on Appropriations' decision cruel and unusual, but it 
is ill-advised.
  The Center on Budget and Policy Priority, their executive director, 
Mr. Robert Greenstein stated:
  The Appropriation Committee's decision to allow WIC participation 
levels to be cut by 180,000 low-income women, children and infants is 
extremely ill-advised.

                              {time}  1845

  To agree with cutbacks to the number of poor women and children who 
are aided in what is probably known as the singly most successful 
program which is run in any level of our government is hard to 
understand.
  It may be hard for him to understand, but those of us who have been 
around in politics for a while understand the realities of the 
Republican strategy: To take the food out of the mouths of those 
180,000 men and women, little kids, to give a tax break, once again, to 
the wealthy.
  My friends on the radical Republican side of this Congress are 
misjudging, once again, the American people, as they did with the 
Medicare and Medicaid cuts of last year. I do not believe our citizens 
will sit by while the service of big business and the wealthy, the 
Republicans, send 180,000 poor people into the streets begging for food 
and medical care. It should not happen here in America.
  How many more children must suffer before we retain the moral 
conscience of our Nation? How many more babies must cry through the 
night before we remember the golden rule? How many more mothers will go 
full term through a pregnancy without seeing a physician?
  The weak, the poor, the least of those in our society are those we 
should always protect. It is the cornerstone of our Nation to look out 
for those who are lost and those who are least able to fend for 
themselves. If we have feelings, if we are compassionate, if we have a 
heart, we will take care of our young. Please vote to take care of the 
infants, the pregnant women, and the little kids.

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