Frank Pallone: “I just wanted to contradict what my colleague from Ohio on the Republican side just said about the WIC Program. The…”

“I just wanted to contradict what my colleague from Ohio on the Republican side just said about the WIC Program. The bottom line is that the $76 million in supplemental funds are needed for the WIC Program. The information submitted by 50 States to the Agricultural Department in early April specifically says that they will have to drop, many of those States will have to drop women, infants, and children from WIC before the end of the fiscal year if no supplemental funding is provided. And the documents that these States filed with the Agriculture Department in early April basically took into account all unspent funds from fiscal year 1996. The proposed $76 million supplemental funding requested by the administration takes these funds into account. So it is simply not true that there is carryover money that is going to be available to make up for this difference. When we are giving these estimates and we are saying that we need the $76 million extra, it takes into account those carryover funds. I would point out, Mr. Speaker, that these estimates in these reports and the requests for this additional funding in many cases is coming from States governed by Republican Governors.”