Charles W. Stenholm: “I have spent all of my life in the food processing end of the business. I have spent the last 16 years of my life…”

“I have spent all of my life in the food processing end of the business. I have spent the last 16 years of my life learning more about the consuming side our food industry. In the last few days I have spent a lot of time talking to the school lunch room administrators, school superintendents back home in my district, and they confirmed a belief that I already had, that our school lunch and breakfast programs are not broken, and I am puzzled why some seek to fix them. But tonight I want to spend a few minutes talking about a program that I have become very supportive of, and that is the WIC Program. When I first heard of it, Mr. Speaker, I was supportive because it did one thing that was sort of important. It fed children. But 4 years ago in the House Committee on the Budget I had an experience of sitting and listening to four CEOs of four of the larger corporations of America who had come before the Committee on the Budget for one purpose that day, and that was to convince us in the Congress to fully fund the WIC Program, not just 40 percent or, at that time, 30 percent, but to fully fund it, and I listened with quite a bit of attention and some considerable interest.”