Sam Farr: “Again, how many times do they have to keep attacking the WIC account, women, infant and children? America has long…”

“Again, how many times do they have to keep attacking the WIC account, women, infant and children? America has long decided that we ought to be taking care of the most vulnerable people in America. There are women who are pregnant, low- income, and what we've found is if you don't invest in teaching them how to have proper nutrition during their pregnancy, you have a risk of having a low-weight baby. A low-weight baby, as Dr. McDermott told us yesterday on the floor, can cost up to a quarter of a million dollars in incubation and hospital costs, and this is preventable with good nutrition. We go on to teach women, once that baby is born, how to breast-feed that child. We know that is good health practices. And then we keep the children with nutrition in the first 5 years. That's why it's called women, infant and children; it's about pregnancy, birth and raising that child. And this amendment wants to take $82 million out of that program which instructs women how to do proper breast-feeding and works with the States to do educational programs. We spent 3 hours last night debating the consequences of these cuts. And it's one of those penny-wise, super-pound foolish. It's also one of those where you know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. There is a lot of value in keeping women well nourished during pregnancy and certainly keeping that newborn child well fed and nourished.…”