Louis Stokes: “Mr. Chairman, this is a program that we really ought to support and I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr.…”

“Mr. Chairman, this is a program that we really ought to support and I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Foglietta] who has offered this amendment. Under this rescission funding for Healthy Start has been cut $10 million. This program provides resources and assistance to rural and urban communities with high infant mortality rates. A few days ago over on that same subcommittee we had six Nobel laureates who sat before us and talked about the state of health in America today. One of the things that they talked about to us was the high infant mortality rates in this country today. While infant mortality rates is a matter of being able to rate a nation in terms of its total health care, our Nation ranks about 17th in the world. Here we are, the top country in the world, yet we rank about 17th in the world in terms of infant mortality rates. Under these cuts, what is going to happen is that about 2,200 pregnant women would not receive primary care, 33,000 prenatal visits would be eliminated, 3,000 pediatric appointments would be eliminated, 5,800 clients would not receive child care, 3,267 clients would not receive skill in job training.”