Frank Riggs: “I wanted to take the floor just to explain for a moment that through the years the WIC Program, as it is known, has…”

“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.”