Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2012
Floor Speech
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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.
The Acting CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Page 45, line 1, after the dollar amount, insert ``(reduced by $75,000,000'').
Page 45, line 3, after the dollar amount, insert ``(reduced by $7,500,000'').
Page 80, line 2, after the dollar amount, insert ``(increased by $82,500,000'').
Mr. FARR. Mr. Chairman, I reserve a point of order on this amendment.
The Acting CHAIR. A point of order is reserved.
The gentlewoman from North Carolina is recognized for 5 minutes in support of her amendment.
Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chairman, my amendment today is an effort to save taxpayers' hard-earned money by ending funding for an unnecessary program that spends money coming to the Federal Government from our hardworking taxpayers.
Mr. Chairman, I want to say that I very much believe in breast-feeding. We wouldn't have a human race here today if it weren't for the fact that breast-feeding has been in existence since the beginning of time; however, I am opposed to the Federal Government funding breast-feeding programs.
Under the special supplemental program for women, infants and children, or the WIC program, Congress directed the United States Department of Agriculture to create a national program for the promotion of breast-feeding. In fiscal 2010, the Federal Government spent $85 million to educate women on how to breast-feed.
We are facing a national debt of over $14 trillion. Spending taxpayer money to promote breast-feeding is simply not the proper role of the Federal Government and serves to illustrate just one reason--government mission creep--that we are so deeply in debt.
In the last 10 years, administrative costs for the WIC program have grown by 72 percent while enrollment has increased by only 26 percent. It is difficult to understand how this program's bureaucracy has grown three times as fast as its enrollment. Again, it's an accepted fact that breast-feeding is good for infants and mothers, and I support mothers who choose to breast-feed, but coaching women on breast-feeding is not the role of Washington.
This program came to my attention earlier this year because of the budget crunches that all levels of government are feeling. I was contacted by counties in North Carolina about this program, and it was brought to my attention that most of the money is being used to pay salaries and benefits, some is being used for travel expenses, and some is being used for cell phone use so that the peer counselors are available 24 hours a day to the people that they are counseling.
My colleagues across the aisle will shout about this, and I may even be opposed by my colleagues on this side of the aisle, but last year my colleagues across the aisle cut more than $550 million from the WIC program to fund unrelated activities at the USDA. These were totally unrelated. It was obviously not a high priority then.
If we want to promote the health and well-being of women, infants and children, then let's get serious about it by creating a job-friendly environment that puts people back to work and allows American families to keep more of what they earn. Let's stop spending money on every well-intentioned program and return the Federal Government to its constitutionally mandated purposes.
Mr. Chairman, the American people are tired of Washington taking their hard-earned dollars in taxes and wasting it on a bloated Federal bureaucracy. It's time we stop the culture of spending in Washington. That's why I urge adoption of my amendment, which will save taxpayers $82.5 million in just 1 year. The money will go into the Spending Reduction Account. And I want to say my total concern here is the spending of hard-earned taxpayers' dollars on a program that the Federal Government has no business running.
Mr. Chairman, it has come to my attention that I need to ask unanimous consent to withdraw the amendment and offer an amendment that was not printed in the Record.
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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chairman, I will not take advantage of this mistake that I made. I appreciate the indulgence of the ranking member and the chair of the committee, and I will just say that I would appreciate very much having the support for my amendment.
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Ms. FOXX. I thank the gentleman from Georgia for yielding to me.
I think it's unfortunate that our colleagues on the other side of the aisle characterize our doing our best to bring fiscal sanity to this country by saying that we do not care for people who are poor or disadvantaged.
Mr. Chairman, I grew up as poor as anybody in this body, and I know what it means to be poor and to be hungry. I have no malice toward any person in this country, none, no malice toward anyone in this body. However, we are on the verge of a fiscal disaster in this country. There are many things that could be done at the local level and the State level, that should be done at the local and State level, but absolutely should not be done at the Federal level.
Again, my colleagues across the aisle come here and say what a shame it is that you are picking on the WIC program. Well, they took over $500 million out of the WIC program last year, put it in a totally unrelated program and said nothing about it. We didn't come to the floor and say, you are mistreating poor and disadvantaged women and children. No comments were made about that.
Again, I think it is very unfortunate that that is how we are characterized. I believe that we have an obligation, an obligation given to us by God, to help our fellow Americans who are less fortunate than we are. But it is not our responsibility as Members of Congress to tax hardworking Americans who are working all the time just to pay their bills and survive and use that money to help other people. That is not our job. Our job is to do everything we can to create a good environment in this country for everyone to succeed, and that is the direction that I want to go. By lowering our dependency on foreign governments, we will make our country a better place to be.
As my colleagues have said over and over and over again in the debate on this bill, we are borrowing 43 cents for every dollar that we spend. We have a $14 trillion debt. There is a huge debate about our raising the debt ceiling that is going to be facing us. Do we really want to ignore the opportunity to save $82.5 million in a program that has no business being run out of the Federal Government and help us deal with the big issue that is facing us? That is what Congress should be dealing with. We should be dealing with the big issues. We should let these other issues be dealt with at the local and State level.
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