[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 63 (Wednesday, May 14, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H2615-H2616]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            THE WIC PROGRAM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Michigan [Ms. Stabenow] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commend my colleagues who 
supported voting no on the rule that came before us that addressed the 
issue of funding for WIC. Unfortunately, the rule that was in front of 
us did not guarantee solid, long-term funding for WIC. I am very 
pleased that the rule was voted down and that we now have an 
opportunity to come back and do the right thing.
  I also rise today, Mr. Speaker, to commend colleagues of mine in a 
bipartisan basis, the gentlewoman from Ohio [Ms. Kaptur] and the 
gentlewoman from New Jersey [Mrs. Roukema], who have worked very hard 
in a bipartisan way to guarantee that women and children under the WIC 
Program have the nutritional services and the food that they need in 
order to be healthy and successful.
  My colleague from the other side of the aisle from Florida spoke a 
few moments ago very eloquently about the need for the WIC Program. I 
would just add to that. In my years of working in county and State 
government, I have not felt more confident about any other program of 
government as I have about the WIC Program. It provides supplementation 
directly to pregnant women and women and young children up to 5 who are 
low income and in need of good nutritious food, vegetables, fruit, 
other nutritional supplementation, eggs, milk, and so on.

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  We know without a doubt that for every $1 we put into prenatal care, 
much of it is nutritional services to make sure that women are healthy, 
that babies are healthy. For every $1 we put into prenatal care we know 
we save more than $6 immediately in intensive care costs, many times 
related to low birthweight babies.
  The WIC Program works. It is one that makes sense. It ought not to be 
a partisan issue. I would strongly urge that my colleagues in the 
majority come back with a process that we can all support to guarantee 
WIC funding.
  I also need to respond as a member of the Committee on Agriculture 
for just a moment, because in addition to providing direct nutritional 
food and services for women and children to guarantee that they are 
healthy and have a good start in life, this is also a wonderful 
opportunity to provide additional markets for agricultural products.
  Michigan is strong in agriculture. We have more agricultural products 
that we grow than almost any other State in the Union. We are very 
proud of the fact that Michigan farmers have expanded markets for fresh 
produce through the farmers market nutrition program, which in Michigan 
we call Project Fresh. This is a way for our farmers to provide fresh 
vegetables, fresh fruit, to women and children who are in need of that, 
and it also allows them to have another market for their goods, so it 
works on all accounts.
  It is good for agriculture, it is good for families, it saves costs 
on health care, and I am very hopeful and urge that our colleagues who 
are determining the way to proceed on the rules regarding WIC funding 
will come back with an open process that we can embrace in a bipartisan 
way to guarantee that one of the most cost-effective and one of the 
most commonsense programs provided through Government, the WIC Program, 
is allowed to continue in a way that would allow our women and children 
in this country to be healthy.

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