This hearing transcript presents statements and testimony regarding effectiveness of the Healthy Start Demonstration Project to reduce U.S. infant mortality rates and authorization for funding to establish new sites and to enable exiting programs to act as mentors for and to disseminate information to new projects. Opening statements are presented for Senators Nancy Kassebaum, Chair of the Committee on Labor and Human Resources, and Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy. Prepared statements are then presented for Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter, and Dr. Louis Sullivan, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and creator of the Healthy Start initiative. These statements explore infant mortality rates and highlight the effectiveness of the projects in terms of prevention and the need for continued funding. Testimony is then presented from administrators of Healthy Start sites and recipients of these program services, as well as from Marie McCormick, Chair of the Department of Maternal and Child Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. Prepared statements from the president of a Healthy Start site describing the Healthy Start Initiative in Boston, and from the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation supporting continued funding and highlighting March of Dimes' involvement with Healthy Start conclude the transcripts. Correspondence to Senator Kassebaum regarding Healthy Start is included. (HTH)