Maurice Hinchey: “last week I and others took the floor of this House to deplore the majority party's suggestion that 180,000 American…”

“last week I and others took the floor of this House to deplore the majority party's suggestion that 180,000 American women and children should be cut from the women, infants and children program. This program, WIC as it is known, is an extraordinarily effective program. It prevents low birth weight babies, it prevents anemic babies, it provides proper nutrition for women who are lactating to ensure that their babies grow to be strong and healthy. We were able to defeat that proposal last week, but now we have another proposal before us. An amendment to the supplemental budget that is up today would cut 500,000 women and infants from the women, infants, and children program. We need to marshal our forces once again. The Gekas amendment needs to be defeated. It should be defeated because it is shortsighted and mean-spirited. It would have the opposite effect of those who want to invest in the future of our country by investing in American families. Let us defeat that amendment and make sure that the women, infants, and children program continues to be an effective way to strengthen women, strengthen their children, and strengthen American families.”