Senate proposes higher funding than House for WIC and food aid
The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a USDA-FDA funding bill on Thursday that would spend $1.6 billion more on WIC and international food aid than the version approved by House appropriators one day earlier. The greatest difference, $1.1 billion, was in funding for Food for Peace, the leading U.S. food aid program.
Five months late, USDA gets full-year funding
President Biden signed into law a $460 billion appropriations bill with funding through Sept. 30 for the USDA and five other federal departments on Saturday, providing full-year funding after four stopgap bills. House and Senate leaders have a March 22 deadline to agree on and pass a funding bill for the rest of the federal government.
House defeats USDA-FDA funding bill
The House rejected the USDA-FDA funding bill for this fiscal year by a 46-vote margin driven partly by the bill's proposed ban on mail-order and over-the-counter sale of an abortion drug to people holding a prescription. USDA-FDA funding could become part of a long-term government funding bill in coming weeks; the stand-alone Senate version of the bill, with no ban on the drug, mifepristone, also was available.
White House pushes Congress for help in meeting WIC needs
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.
WIC needs an additional $1 billion — or more — says think tank
Due to rising participation rates and food inflation, the Women, Infants, and Children program will need $7.2 billion to $7.3 billion in the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 — far above the amounts being considered by Congress, said the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities on Wednesday.
White House threatens to veto USDA-FDA funding bill
House Republicans are "wasting time with partisan bills," said the White House in a three-page list of objections to the $198 billion USDA-FDA funding bill on Monday, including cuts to clean energy programs and a ban on over-the-counter sales of the abortion drug mifepristone. The GOP-controlled House may vote on the bill later this week.