The Biden administration is taking a two-step approach to supplying enough money for the Women, Infants, and Children food program to meet larger-than-expected enrollment, said the White House on Wednesday. It called for swift Senate passage of a “mini-bus” package that includes funding for the USDA and pointed to its request for an additional $1.4 billion for WIC in a short-term government funding bill to be considered later this month.
“The administration looks forward to working with the Congress to ensure that WIC funding is sufficient to serve all eligible women and children who seek assistance,” said the White House statement. The “mini-bus” package awaiting a Senate vote includes $6.3 billion for WIC, which provides supplemental food and healthcare referrals to low-income pregnant women and children up to age 5.
Meanwhile, House Republican leaders have no plans to seek a floor vote on the House version of the USDA-FDA funding bill, reported Politico, citing three unnamed sources. GOP lawmakers were fighting over the bill’s proposed ban on over-the-counter sales and mail delivery of abortion pills and on spending levels. “It’s dead, dead,” one of the sources told Politico.
Senate Agriculture Committee chair Debbie Stabenow has filed an amendment to the Senate “mini-bus” package that would restore $8.5 million for the USDA’s office of urban agriculture. Funding for the office was omitted during drafting of the Senate and House USDA-FDA bills. Stabenow was the driving force in creating the urban agriculture program in the 2018 farm bill.
Government funding will expire with the end of the federal fiscal year on Sept. 30 unless Congress passes the annual funding bills for federal departments or a short-term funding bill.