Speech #960280572

I hope this amendment will not be approved by the Senate. The committee. I think very wisely. included a provision in the bill to establish some kind of a nationally applicable definition of what a migrant farm worker is. and also provided for some type of informational program to reach these migrant workers so that the most vulnerable members of that groupnamely. nursing mothers. pregnant women. infants. and young childrenare aware of the fact that there exists a food supplemental program that can benefit them. I remember some 10 or 11 years ago. going with the late Senator Ellender and a number of other Senators into some of the migrant labor camps where we were looking at the impact of our Federal nutritional programs. We found that one of the problems was that neither the Federal Government. nor the States. nor the local communities. were clear about what their responsibilities were to those people. I remember the Governor of one of the States that we visited saying that this was not a responsibility for his State. He said. "These migrant people are Federal people." He used that phrase. We got the same thing from the county commissioners. They would say. "It is not our problem. This is a Federal problem." We were there as Congressmen trying to urge the local communities. the counties. and the States. to take a greater share of the responsibility for the care of these migrant workers. There certainly cannot be any doubt about the fact of the nutritional vulnerability of these migrant farmworkers and their families. I think that has been documented over and over again. They have had the highest incidence of nutritionrelated problems of any group in our population. Studies have shown that infant mortality among the migrant farmworker population is onefourth higher than the national average. The incidence of infectious disease is 20 percent higher than among other groups. Births occurring outside of hospitals are nine times more frequent among migrants than among the general population. I can assure every Senator. Mr. President. that the incidence of malnutrition. particularly prenatal. and childhood anemia. is higher for migrants than any other group in the population in this country. Even among those migrant farmworker families that are reached by nutritional programs. it is difficult to maintain continuity of service because they are a mobile group. they move from community to community and State to State. and there is a lag time with each one of those moves before they qualify for assistance programs. even though they are among the poorest residents of this country. S. 2675 would. in many respects. put into law what the Department of Agriculture currently requires regarding WIC migrant funding. or is doing a matter of policy. The bill directs that States set aside funds to serve migrant farmworkers. For the past 2 years the Department has provided special migrant allocations to States. and directed that these funds be used to serve migrant.. The allocations have been based oi States estimates of the number of mi grants in the States who could be served Thus. the Department already has migrant setaside in effect that. in mos respects. accords with the requirement of S. 2675. However. there are a few States witt migrant populations that have not re quested special migrant allocations generally because their original alloca. tions were sufficient to serve the migrani population. S. 2675 would require al States with migrant populations of an3 significant size at any time of the yeai to set aside funds for migrants. The bil: also prescribes that the amount of th( setaside for all such States must takf into account the number of eligible migrants in the eligible population. including the number of migrants projected tc come into each State and the length of time migrants will remain in the State. The setaside would be in amounts sufficient to serve migrants. States would be expected to set aside funds sufficient to cover all migrants who could be served both through existing local agencies and through additional local agencies that are available and could be opened in high impact migrant areas. The setaside would not necessarily. however. be in an amount needed to cover every migrant who travels through the State if the State could not realistically reach every migrant because no existing or new local agency was available in every area in the State where every migrant resided at any time. To set aside funds for migrants who simply cannot currently or in the fiscal year be reached would mean that WIC funds were going unused while other poor women and children at nutritional risk went unserved. The bill does require States to conduct outreach in high impact migrant areas in conjunction with organizations representing migrant and seasonal f armworkers. As a result. States should be able to reach a large proportion of the migrants in the State. The bill also provides for reallocations of migrant funds. The Departments experience of the past 2 years has shown that some States do request more migrant funds than they actually use due to changes in the migrant stream. S. 2675 recognizes this. and allows funds setaside for migrants to be redistributed if there is not a likelihood that the funds will actually be used for migrants. In redistributing such funds. the Department would be required to give first preference to other areas that need additional funds to serve migrants. If there are not other areas that need additional funds for migrants. then the funds would be reallocated for nonmigrant participants. Setting aside funds for migrants does not mean that current participants must be replaced by migrant participants. or that migrants certified for the program in one area are guaranteed service in another area. The bill states that migrants should continue to r ceive benefits "to the maximum extent practicable". This is essentially identical to the requirement in Public Law 95627. Ne Department .. instituted this requirement with a rulb n requiring that in any area where thern - is a waiting list. any migrants with 1. verification of certificaton (VOC) carc a from another area would go to the toi t of the wating list. but that no curren s nonmigrant participant would be termi. nated to open a slot for a migrant partici ipant. This practice would continue. The net effect. as I say. of the amend ment offered by the Senator from Nortl - Carolina. is to make these migrant work. b ers less aware of what the assistance i! 1 under our nutritional programs. to adc r to the already existing confusion as tc r who is responsible for assisting our mi. i grant farm families. and I would thint this is an amendment that reverses th( intent of the committee of trying to clarify this one area of the program. - I very much hope that the Senate will reject this amendment.