I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1464
To amend the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 to permit video or telephone
certifications in the special supplemental nutrition program for women,
infants, and children, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY21, 2025
Mr. F
ITZPATRICK(for himself and Ms. BONAMICI) introduced the following
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Workforce
A BILL
To amend the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 to permit video
or telephone certifications in the special supplemental
nutrition program for women, infants, and children, and
for other purposes.
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 ‘‘More Options to De-4
velop and Enhance Remote Nutrition in WIC Act of 5
2025’’ or the ‘‘MODERN WIC Act of 2025’’. 6
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SEC. 2. REDEFINING PRESENCE AT CERTIFICATION. 1
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 17(d)(3) of the Child Nu-2
trition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1786(d)(3)) is amended— 3
(1) by striking subparagraphs (B) and (C); 4
(2) by inserting the following after subpara-5
graph (A): 6
‘‘(B) P
RESENCE FOR CERTAIN DETER -7
MINATIONS AND EVALUATIONS .— 8
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—A State agency 9
shall ensure that appointments for individ-10
uals seeking certification, recertification, or 11
a nutritional risk evaluation for participa-12
tion in the program authorized under this 13
section are offered— 14
‘‘(I) in-person; and 15
‘‘(II) either— 16
‘‘(aa) by telephone; 17
‘‘(bb) through video tech-18
nology that permits 2-way, real 19
time interactive communications; 20
or 21
‘‘(cc) through other formats 22
that permit 2-way, real time 23
interactive communications, as 24
determined by the Secretary. 25
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‘‘(ii) ADA COMPLIANCE.—Any format 1
made available for an appointment under 2
clause (i) shall be accessible to an indi-3
vidual in accordance with the Americans 4
with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 5
12101 et seq.) and section 504 of the Re-6
habilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794). 7
‘‘(iii) N
UTRITIONAL RISK EVALUA -8
TIONS FOR VIRTUAL CERTIFICATION .—If 9
an individual is certified for participation 10
in the program under clause (i) through a 11
format other than in-person, a State agen-12
cy shall— 13
‘‘(I) to the maximum extent prac-14
ticable, collect anthropometric data 15
necessary to evaluate the nutritional 16
risk of that individual within 30 days 17
of the appointment; and 18
‘‘(II) collect such data not later 19
than 90 days after the appointment. 20
‘‘(iv) I
NTERIM ELIGIBILITY FOR NU -21
TRITIONAL RISK.— 22
‘‘(I) I
N GENERAL .—A State 23
agency may consider an applicant who 24
meets the income eligibility standards 25
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to be temporarily eligible on an in-1
terim basis to participate in the pro-2
gram and may certify any such indi-3
vidual for participation immediately, 4
without delaying certification until a 5
nutritional risk evaluation is made. 6
‘‘(II) N
UTRITIONAL RISK EVAL -7
UATION.—A nutritional risk evalua-8
tion of such individual shall be com-9
pleted not later than 90 days after the 10
individual is certified for participation 11
pursuant to subclause (I). 12
‘‘(III) T
ERMINATION.—If a State 13
agency does not collect data in accord-14
ance with clause (iii)(II) or the indi-15
vidual is subsequently determined to 16
not meet nutritional risk criteria, the 17
certification of that individual shall 18
terminate on the date described in 19
such clause (iii)(II) or the date of 20
such determination, as applicable.’’; 21
and 22
(3) by redesignating subparagraphs (D) 23
through (F) as subparagraphs (C) through (E), re-24
spectively. 25
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(b) TECHNICALAMENDMENT.—Section 17(d)(3) of 1
the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1786(d)(3)) 2
is amended by conforming the margin of subparagraph 3
(B) to the margin of subparagraph (C). 4
SEC. 3. REMOTE BENEFIT ISSUANCE. 5
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 17(f)(6)(B) of the Child 6
Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1786(f)(6)(B)) is 7
amended— 8
(1) in the third sentence— 9
(A) by striking ‘‘vouchers by mail’’ and in-10
serting ‘‘food instruments by mail, remote 11
issuance, or other means’’; and 12
(B) by striking ‘‘The Secretary’’ and in-13
serting the following: 14
‘‘(iii) D
ISAPPROVAL OF STATE 15
PLAN.—The Secretary’’; 16
(2) in the second sentence— 17
(A) by striking ‘‘vouchers by mail in its 18
plan’’ and inserting ‘‘food instruments by mail, 19
remote issuance, or other means in the State 20
plan’’; and 21
(B) by striking ‘‘The State’’ and inserting 22
the following: 23
‘‘(ii) S
TATE PLAN.—The State’’; and 24
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(3) by striking ‘‘(B) STATE AGENCIES’’ and all 1
that follows through ‘‘to obtain vouchers.’’ and in-2
serting the following: 3
‘‘(B) D
ELIVERY OF FOOD INSTRUMENTS .— 4
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—State agencies may 5
provide for the delivery of food instruments, in-6
cluding electronic benefit transfer cards, to any 7
participant through means that do not require 8
the participant to travel to the local agency to 9
obtain food instruments, such as through mail-10
ing or remote issuance.’’. 11
(b) R
EGULATIONS.—The Secretary shall revise sec-12
tion 246.12(r) of title 7, Code of Federal Regulations, by 13
striking paragraph (4). 14
SEC. 4. REPORT TO CONGRESS. 15
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 16
date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit 17
to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry 18
of the Senate and the Committee on Education and the 19
Workforce of the House of Representatives a report on 20
the use of remote technologies under the special supple-21
mental nutrition program for women, infants, and children 22
established by section 17 of the Child Nutrition Act of 23
1966 (42 U.S.C. 1786) (referred to in this section as the 24
‘‘program’’). 25
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(b) CONTENT OF REPORT.—The report submitted 1
under subsection (a) shall include a description of— 2
(1) the use of remote technologies and other 3
digital tools, including video, telephone, and online 4
platforms— 5
(A) to certify eligible individuals for pro-6
gram services; and 7
(B) to provide nutrition education and 8
breastfeeding support to program participants; 9
(2) the impact of remote technologies, including 10
video, telephone, and online platforms, on certifi-11
cations, appointments, and participant satisfaction 12
under the program; and 13
(3) best practices to— 14
(A) certify program participants for pro-15
gram services using remote technologies; 16
(B) incorporate the use of digital tools into 17
the program certification process; 18
(C) integrate nutrition education and 19
breastfeeding support services for program par-20
ticipants into remote technologies and plat-21
forms; and 22
(D) securely manage program participant 23
data. 24
Æ
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