[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 63 (Wednesday, May 14, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H2613-H2614]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                SUPPORT FULL FUNDING FOR THE WIC PROGRAM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Bilirakis] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support our Nation's 
future by calling for full funding for the WIC nutrition program. All 
too often the debate in this great House of democracy focuses on 
estimates, projections, baselines, adjustments, or some other technical 
term that we hear every day. We are asked to ponder piles of paper 
filled with facts and figures and then make a judgment about how those 
numbers or how changing those numbers will affect the everyday lives of 
millions of Americans.
  Today I ask that instead we take a moment and focus on the foundation 
of our Nation, indeed, its future, our children. I think it is more 
important to focus on the valuable benefits and help services WIC 
provides to its participants rather than haggling over census numbers 
and terms like full participation. When discussing the WIC Program, we 
must remind ourselves that it has a 22-year track record of providing 
valuable and, in fact, critical services to some of our Nation's most 
vulnerable citizens. The WIC Program provides specific nutritious foods 
to at-risk, income-eligible, pregnant, postpartum and breast feeding 
women, infants and children up to five years of age. WIC gives women 
and young children the means to obtain highly nutritious food like 
iron-fortified infant formula, calcium rich milk, eggs, juice, cereal 
and other staple foods necessary for healthy development. More than 
food, WIC is designed to influence a lifetime of good nutrition and 
healthy behavior by providing valuable nutrition education for its 
participants as well as referrals to other local health and social 
service organizations.
  During pregnancy, Mr. Speaker, one of the most fragile periods in a 
woman's life, WIC enhances dietary intake, which improves weight gain 
and the likelihood of a successful pregnancy. After birth, WIC 
continues to promote the health of infants and is responsible for 
reducing low birth rate and infant mortality. Children who participate 
in WIC receive immunizations against childhood diseases at a higher 
rate than children who are not WIC participants, and WIC also helps to 
reduce anemia among children.
  As we know, children receiving nutritious meals are in a better 
position to focus on their daily studies. I recently visited an 
elementary school in my district and spoke with the very people 
providing meals to students. They, along with many others, told me that 
proper nutrition is an integral part of our children's educational 
experience. In this regard WIC has been linked to improve cognitive 
development among children. Stated plainly, WIC children are more 
prepared to learn compared to those children who lack proper 
nutritionally balanced diets.

[[Page H2614]]

  In short, Mr. Speaker, WIC serves as a safety net for this country's 
most vulnerable citizens. However, the greatest testament to WIC comes 
from not from politicians or bureaucrats, but from those who actually 
participate in the program.

                              {time}  1245

  Allow me to share some comments from a few of the dozens of letters 
one of the WIC directors in my district received over the past few 
days. Each of these women felt compelled to write and to urge careful 
consideration of full funding for WIC.
  Erica Miner said that WIC ``helped provide my son a better life than 
what I could before I started the program.''
  Laura Tadoun praised WIC for ``showing me how to eat and drink 
properly so I could have a healthy baby.'' She continues, ``I don't 
know how we could have made it without you.''
  Julia Bruno commented that ``thanks to this program, my children are 
physically and nutritionally well. It is my sincere hope that WIC 
continues so that in the future we will have healthy, happy children 
and save money on medical costs.''
  Tina Donaldo wrote, ``If it weren't for the WIC program I wouldn't be 
able to get by at all.''
  Finally, Nicole LeBaron pleaded, ``Please take this service and the 
funding that they need into serious consideration before cutting it and 
cutting the families like myself that depend on it to help their 
children grow healthy.''
  These WIC success stories from my Florida district, Mr. Speaker, are 
representative of the performance of the program as a whole across the 
country.
  However, in this era of budgetary constraints and fiscal 
conservatism, everything boils down to dollars. And yet on this count, 
WIC has indeed withstood fiscal scrutiny and, without question, 
actually increases the return, increases the return on our investment 
in the program.
  Studies have shown that WIC provides a 350 percent return on the tax 
dollars spent on the program. For example, for every dollar that WIC 
spends, $3.50 is saved in expensive neonatal and disability programs. 
Money spent on pregnant women in WIC produces similar Medicaid savings 
for newborns and their mothers.
  At a time, Mr. Speaker, when we are reducing welfare rolls and 
stressing personal responsibility, I can think of no better way to 
encourage fiscal stability and certainty than by supporting and 
appropriating full funding for the WIC program.
  Let me share with my colleagues the words of my good friend, Clara 
Lawhead. Clara is the Director of Nutrition of WIC Services in Pasco 
County, FL, in my Ninth Congressional District.
  She succinctly explains the problem in my district, in terms we all 
can understand:

       In Florida, we have faced the problem that this year's 
     funding cannot support our current caseload and we have 
     already been forced to initiate a reduction in benefits to 
     our WIC participants. This effort was necessary to maintain 
     some level of service to our clients that have already been 
     identified with a medical or nutritional risk. We began in 
     February to carefully evaluate the diet prescription (food 
     package) in milk and fruit juice for low risk clients. The 
     next step is to reduce caseload.

  Friends and colleagues, WIC is too important to the future of this 
Nation to leave to political games.
  In short, WIC is supported by many people and continues to be a 
popular program. It yields tremendous returns on our investments and 
has been proven, time and time again, to improve the health and well 
being of pregnant women, infants, and children.
  Mr. Speaker, if the greatest sin we commit is erring on the side of 
caution--on the side of children--I will be proud to make that mistake. 
I believe many of my colleagues feel the same and will support me in 
calling for the full $76 million in supplemental funding for the WIC 
program.
  Let me close with the simple yet eloquent words of Dawn Stamper, who 
lives in New Port Richey in my congressional district:

       Our children are our future and need to be given the best 
     chance and first steps needed to lead a healthy and 
     nutritious life.

  Our children are the future. This investment in WIC is one that, at 
the end of the day, we can all point to with pride, because we did what 
was right and we did it for the people who sent us here in the first 
place.

                          ____________________