National WIC Association

Weekly WIC Policy Update

March 28, 2016

Both chambers of Congress are on recess this week. Members of the Senate will return April 4th, while the House of Representatives will not return until April 12th.

The House FY 2017 Budget Resolution, which was approved by the House Budget Committee, chaired by Congressman Tom Price (R-GA) on March 18, has faced opposition among some Republicans during the past couple of weeks. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) has said that the budget resolution will not come to the House floor for a vote until it has the 218 Republican votes it needs in the face of united Democratic opposition. Under the 1974 Budget Act, both houses of Congress are supposed to agree on a budget by April 15, but this deadline is now looking harder to meet.

The dispute over the budget resolution has not stopped members of the House Appropriations Committee from moving forward with individual spending bills. There has been no markup yet of the Agriculture Subcommittee's bill (which sets funding for WIC), but we will keep you informed of when it is scheduled. On the Senate side, the Appropriations Committee plans to start marking up bills after April 15.