Update: Despite being sent a “clean” (without amendments) continuing resolution by the Senate at a compromise funding level of $986 billion down some $72 billion from the Senate’s budget agreement, and NWA opposition, the House of Representatives Friday passed the “Nutrition Assistance for Low-Income Women, Infants, and Children Act,” H.J. Res. 75. The Act is a short-term fix and only temporarily funds WIC through December 15 at Fiscal Year 2013 levels (including sequestration and rescission cuts i.e. net, net).
Call your U.S. Representative immediately and urge them to: oppose H J Res 75, the “Nutrition Assistance for Low-Income Women and Children Act” – a cynical ploy to use low-income nutritionally at-risk mothers and young children as political pawns for political ends. Funding the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) in this piecemeal, short-term, stop-gap manner is not an acceptable solution.
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WIC has sufficient funds to operate through the month of October giving Congress more than sufficient time to pass a “clean” continuing resolution followed by the already marked-up full year FY 2014 House and Senate Agriculture Appropriations bills to fund WIC and the other critical child nutrition programs through the end of the 2014 fiscal year.
We urge Congress to end the uncertainty that exists in our fiscal environment and the already challenged lives of vulnerable mothers and young children by responsibly discharging and fulfilling its moral obligations to the nation.
We will not tolerate efforts to leverage the nutritional health and well-being of pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, their babies, and young children to satisfy the political ends or strategies of policymakers.