What This Bill Does
This bill changes the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 to require the Secretary of Agriculture to make information about infant formula purchasing public online. The bill specifically requires states to submit details about how they request bids (formal requests for prices and offers) for infant formula, and the government must publish this information for the public to see.
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Who It Affects
- The Secretary of Agriculture (the head of the Department of Agriculture)
- State agencies that manage the WIC program (a nutrition assistance program for women, infants and children)
- State alliances (groups of states working together)
- Companies that bid to sell infant formula
- Members of the public
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Key Provisions
- The Secretary of Agriculture must make infant formula procurement information available to the public within 180 days after the law passes (Sec. 2)
- When states request bids for infant formula, they must submit information about those bid requests to the Secretary within 5 business days, including the bid title, website links where people can submit bids, contact information for the state agency, and when bids are due (Sec. 2)
- The Secretary must publish all bid solicitation descriptions online within 5 days of receiving them from states (Sec. 2)
- The Secretary must issue guidance (official instructions) to explain how to carry out this requirement (Sec. 2)
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What Changes
Currently, information about how states buy infant formula through the WIC program is not required to be publicly available. This bill requires that information to be shared online so the public can see how states are purchasing infant formula.
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Important Definitions
- **WIC program**: The special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children
- **Bid solicitations**: Official requests asking companies to submit offers and prices for products
- **State alliance**: A group of states working together
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Effective Date
Not specified in bill text
II
118TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
S. 974
To amend the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 to require the Secretary of
Agriculture to make publicly available information on infant formula
procurement under the special supplemental nutrition program for
women, infants, and children.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH 27, 2023
Mr. MARSHALL (for himself and Mrs. GILLIBRAND) introduced the following
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture,
Nutrition, and Forestry
A BILL
To amend the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 to require the
Secretary of Agriculture to make publicly available infor-
mation on infant formula procurement under the special
supplemental nutrition program for women, infants, and
children.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘WIC Healthy Begin-
4
nings Act of 2023’’.
5
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•S 974 IS
SEC. 2. INFANT FORMULA PROCUREMENT ONLINE SOURCE
1
OF INFORMATION.
2
Section 17(h)(8)(A) of the Child Nutrition Act of
3
1966 (42 U.S.C. 1786(h)(8)(A)) is amended by adding at
4
the end the following:
5
‘‘(xi) INFANT
FORMULA
PROCURE-
6
MENT
ONLINE
SOURCE
OF
INFORMA-
7
TION.—
8
‘‘(I) IN
GENERAL.—Not later
9
than 180 days after the date of enact-
10
ment of this clause, the Secretary
11
shall make available to the public the
12
information described in items (aa)
13
through (dd) of subclause (II) relating
14
to bid solicitations of State agencies
15
for infant formula under the program.
16
‘‘(II) STATE AGENCIES.—In so-
17
liciting bids for infant formula under
18
the program, a State agency, or a
19
State agency on behalf of a State alli-
20
ance, shall submit to the Secretary,
21
not later than 5 business days after
22
the date on which a bid solicitation is
23
made available online to bidders by
24
the State, a description of the bid so-
25
licitation, including—
26
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•S 974 IS
‘‘(aa) the title of the bid so-
1
licitation and the State agency
2
administering the bid solicitation;
3
‘‘(bb) the website hyperlink
4
and other information needed for
5
the purpose of submitting a bid
6
in response to the bid solicitation;
7
‘‘(cc) the contact informa-
8
tion and website hyperlink for
9
the State agency administering
10
the bid solicitation, for the pur-
11
pose of gathering additional in-
12
formation relating to the bid so-
13
licitation; and
14
‘‘(dd)
the
period
during
15
which bids are accepted or the
16
due date for bids, as applicable,
17
under the bid solicitation.
18
‘‘(III) PUBLICATION.—Not later
19
than 5 days after receiving a descrip-
20
tion of a bid solicitation under sub-
21
clause (II), the Secretary shall make
22
that description publicly available.
23
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•S 974 IS
‘‘(IV)
GUIDANCE.—The
Sec-
1
retary shall issue guidance to imple-
2
ment this clause.’’.
3
Æ
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