The President yesterday, released the Administration's budget while NWA was hosting our Annual Washington Leadership Conference & Research Summit. The good news is that the President's 2015 Budget for WIC provides:
The House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee is scheduled to hold an initial hearing on the President's budget request this morning.
This is an election year and so proponents and opponents of the President's budget will likely use every opportunity to make political points before a final appropriation is passed. It is also likely that our friends in the potato industry and their Capitol Hill allies will seek to use appropriations bills as a vehicle to circumvent the science based decision of USDA in their release of the final Food Package Rule last Friday, that continues to exclude white potatoes from the now $10 fruit and vegetable cash value voucher (CVV) for women and $8 for children. The CVV is designed to promote the consumption of under consumed fruits and vegetables and not the already widely consumed white potatoes.