National WIC Association

Weekly WIC Policy Update

April 21, 2014
Categories: WIC Funding and Operation

Last week Congressman George Miller (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Education & The Workforce Committee wrote a blog post about commending USDA’s strong position on maintaining school nutrition standards and the scientific integrity of the WIC food packages.

The final WIC food package rule continues to keep white potatoes out of the food packages per the IOM’s recommendation to do so. The next WIC food package scientific review process will likely begin sometime in 2015. The Education & The Workforce Committee is the committee that is responsible for facilitating the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization (CNR) process, and hearings regarding CNR are expected to begin over the next few months.


Orgs: Sign FY2015 WIC Funding Letter to Congress!

We are urging Congress to provide a sufficient funding level to assure that no eligible applicants will be turned away, to maintain current and anticipated WIC participation levels, to assure adequate nutrition services and administration (NSA) funding, and to respond adequately to forecasts of food cost inflation.

We are also requesting:

  • $96.2 million (the inflation adjusted authorized level) in set aside funding for breastfeeding peer counselors and breastfeeding support services;
  • $32.07 million (the inflation adjusted authorized level) in MIS/EBT funding
  • $14.96 million in infrastructure funding;
  • $16 million for program initiatives and evaluation, including $5 million for research (failure to fund research and evaluation studies shortchanges policymakers leaving you without the appropriate tools to make necessary funding decisions); and
  • $150 million in contingency funding.

Please urge your partner organizations to sign onto the letter!

Read the full letter and sign on here.

This letter is for organizations to sign onto, only; we are not looking for individuals to sign on at this time. The deadline to sign on is COB May 2nd.