The subcommittee met at 9:35 a.m., in room 1318, Everett McKinley Dirksen Office Building, Hon. Thomas F. Eagleton (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Eagleton, Burdick, Young, and Bellmon. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOOD AND NUTRITION SERVICE STATEMENT OF CAROL TUCKER FOREMAN, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR FOOD AND CONSUMER SERVICES ACCOMPANIED BY: ROBERT GREENSTEIN, SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE SECRE- LEWIS B. STRAUS, ADMINISTRATOR, FOOD AND NUTRITION NANCY SNYDER, ACTING DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR FOR GENE DICKEY, ACTING DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR FOR SPE- GRACE L. OSTENSO, ACTING DIRECTOR, NUTRITION AND ROBERT SHERMAN, OFFICE OF BUDGET, PLANNING AND OPENING REMARKS Senator EAGLETON. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. The Subcommittee on Agriculture of the Senate Appropriations Committee is in session to continue its hearing on the fiscal year 1979 budget. Today we will consider the testimony of the Food and Nutrition Service. The first item to be covered is a pending fiscal 1978 reprograming action that would transfer $85 million within the child nutrition programs, utilize $4.8 million of the unobligated food stamp balances to cover section 17 research, demonstration, and evaluation projects, and reprogram $4,200,000 to the food donations program and $8 million to the elderly feeding program using commodities provided by section 32 activities. The second item to be considered is the pending fiscal year 1979 budget request of $7,842,758,000 for the domestic food programs of the Food and Nutrition Service. These include administrative costs, food stamps, special milk, child nutrition, special supplemental feeding and food donations programs. Our first witness is Mrs. Carol Foreman, the Assistant Secretary for Food and Consumer Services. Mrs. Foreman, would you want to dispose of the reprograming item first? PREPARED STATEMENTS Mrs. FOREMAN. I consider reprograming in my opening statement. I will go all the way through the opening statement and then take questions on that, if you prefer. Attached are my prepared opening statements. I will summarize them for the record. [The information follows:] STATEMENTS OF CAROL TUCKER FOREMAN Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee: I appreciate having the opportunity to appear before this committee to support the Food and Nutrition Service budget request for the fiscal year 1979. Mr. Straus, the Administrator of the Food and Nutrition The objective of the food assistance programs operated by the Food and Nutrition Service is the effective utilization of our agricultural food abundance to achieve improved nutrition for low-income Americans, children, the elderly, and other groups at nutritional risk. By effective utilization, I mean the stimulation of our farm economy by price stabilization, the reduction of excessive inventories, and improved farm income, especially for "family farmers." The administration of the Food and Nutrition Service domestic food assistance programs should provide a happy marriage of food producers and the economically disadvantaged consumers in the United States. This arrangement is consistent with our goal of providing a mutually beneficial program for the nation's farmers and the nation's consumers. This year, we conducted a close examination, extending over a number of months, of the programs in the Food and Nutrition Service. We took a hard look at the priorities necessary to best serve both agricultural producers and consumers through our food assistance programs, while improving program management and targeting benefits on those most in need. We found that the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) has produced impressive results in decreasing anemia, incidences of low birthweight infants, and other health deficiencies during the most critical phase in human development - pregnancy, infancy, and early childhood. The successes of these programs may well be, averting permanent, irreversible effects that would otherwise prevent children from reaching their full mental and physical potential. In the long run. these programs may save millions of Federal dollars in welfare and medical assistance programs by producing the physical and mental capability for these children to develop into healthy, working, productive citizens. Since most of the United States do not currently have a WIC program, - the Department is requesting some increase in this area. The Department plans to continue the Commodity P. L. 95-113, we are now providing administrative I should note that the Department strongly believes in the importance of full use of commodities in USDA food assistance programs. Last month, we announced that schools could receive additional quantities of those commodities in abundance in Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) stocks. These bonus commodities will be donated from CCC inventories, under the Section 416 authority. Included will be dairy products, peanut products, and flour. To further enhance the favorable impact of our programs on While proposing an increase in the WIC program, we will also be submitting legislation to the authorizing committees that would make reductions in various other Food and Nutrition Service program areas. These reductions would be directed at those with higher incomes and, therefore, less in need of food assistance. We have also recommended some reduction in the Equipment Assistance Program. While some other increases do appear in the Food and Nutrition Service budget, they are largely the result of mandated increases in reimbursement rates to keep pace with inflation, and of modest increases in some Food and Nutrition entitlement programs. Overall, the period of rapid growth in Food and Nutrition Service food assistance programs seems to be past. Food stamp and summer feeding expenditures in fiscal year 1977 were both down from the previous year. The Food and Nutrition Service programs constitute 52 percent of the Department's budget request for fiscal year 1979, down from 60 percent in fiscal year 1978. Finally, I should note that we have a major interest in |