National WIC Association

Washington Update: Senate’s Two-Year Budget Deal Includes $14 Million in Additional WIC Infrastructure Funds for Disaster Relief in Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands

February 8, 2018

The National WIC Association is excited to announce that the $14 million in additional infrastructure funds we have requested as part of disaster supplemental appropriations for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands has been included in the two-year budget deal introduced yesterday by Senate leadership. Along with other disaster assistance, the bill also includes a fifth continuing resolution to fund the government at FY 2017 levels through March 23, an agreement to raise budget caps for defense and non-defense discretionary spending, ten-year funding for the CHIP program, a suspension of the federal debt ceiling until March 2019, funding for Community Health Centers and the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (MIECHV), and other provisions. Importantly, the bill does not include an agreement on “DREAMers,” undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children. The bill is expected to pass both the House and Senate today, averting a government shutdown which would occur at midnight without congressional action.