BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2322
Author: Gatto (D)
Amended: 5/1/12 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE : 9-0, 6/20/12
AYES: Hernandez, Harman, Alquist, Anderson, Blakeslee, De
León, DeSaulnier, Rubio, Wolk
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 7-0, 7/2/12
AYES: Kehoe, Walters, Alquist, Dutton, Lieu, Price,
Steinberg
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 70-0, 5/25/12 (Consent) - See last page
for vote
SUBJECT : California Special Supplemental Food Program
for Women,
Infants, and Children
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill requires the Department of Public
Health (DPH) to adopt regulations to specify the criteria
to be used and actions to be taken when initiating a
moratorium on new Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
Program retail food vendor location applications.
ANALYSIS :
CONTINUED
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Existing law
1.Establishes WIC, under the United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA), which provides grants to states for
supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition
education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and
non-breastfeeding postpartum women and for infants and
children up to age five who are found to be at
nutritional risk. Establishes WIC in California,
administered by DPH, for these purposes.
2.Allows DPH to authorize retail food vendors to
participate in the WIC program. Requires DPH to
authorize an appropriate number and distribution of food
vendors in order to ensure adequate participant
convenience and access and to ensure that state or local
officials can effectively manage review of authorized
food vendors in their jurisdictions. Requires DPH to
establish criteria to limit the number of retail food
vendors with which DPH enters into vendor agreements.
3.Allows, under regulation, any retail outlet meeting
certain requirements to apply to become an authorized
food vendor, and describes the criteria used to select
such vendors.
This bill:
1. Requires DPH to adopt regulations to specify the
criteria to be used and actions to be taken when
initiating a moratorium on new WIC Program retail food
vendor location applications. The regulations must:
A. Define an effective caseload management level.
B. Identify the maximum duration of a moratorium.
C. Require a vendor alert, or other official
communication regarding initiation of a moratorium
along with an action plan with steps DPH will take
to achieve effective caseload management by the end
of the moratorium, and requires this information be
made available on DPH's Web site and through other
forms of electronic communication.
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D. Require DPH to process applications during the
moratorium if DPH was notified of the vendors'
intent prior to the moratorium.
E. Require DPH to provide retail food vendors with
a minimum of 30 days' notice prior to the effective
date of, or extension of, a moratorium.
2. Requires DPH to seek necessary federal approvals to
implement the provisions of this bill.
3. Declares legislative findings regarding the rapid
increase in WIC program vendors and the subsequent
moratorium on new WIC program vendors imposed by DPH.
Background
WIC . WIC is a 100 percent federally-funded nutrition and
health program that provides nutrition education and food
for low-income pregnant women, new mothers, and infants or
children under age five. The WIC food package is
specifically designed to meet the special nutritional needs
of its target population and includes items like infant
formula, milk, breakfast cereal, cheese, eggs, fruits,
vegetables and legumes. WIC provides checks or coupons for
buying healthy supplemental foods from WIC-authorized
vendors.
Prior to the moratorium, any retail outlet meeting certain
requirements could apply to become an authorized WIC retail
food vendor. Vendors can be selected based on several
criteria, including competitive prices for WIC foods,
convenience and accessibility of the vendor location for
WIC participants, and DPH's ability to ensure that
authorized supplemental foods will be provided. Each
retail food outlet location must be authorized separately
from any other location operated by an individual, group of
individuals, or a corporation. DPH is required to
authorize an appropriate number and distribution of food
vendors in order to ensure adequate participant convenience
and access. According to DPH, there are over 5,500 grocery
stores statewide that have entered into vendor agreements
with WIC.
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WIC vendor moratorium . On March 7, 2011, DPH announced a
temporary moratorium on accepting new vendor location
applications, effective April 6, 2011. The vendor alert
claimed that the moratorium was necessary to ensure DPH's
ability to effectively manage vendor caseload and indicated
it would remain in effect until budgeted positions could be
filled and staff trained. In response to concerns expressed
by vendors, DPH modified the vendor alert on March 18,
2011, to allow vendors that anticipated applying for WIC
authorization for a new store location, but that were not
ready to submit an application before April 6, 2011, to
instead submit a letter requesting the vendor and the store
location be placed on WIC's moratorium exception list. DPH
announced the moratorium would end effective February 27,
2012, but on February 24, 2012, DPH issued another vendor
alert stating that the moratorium would continue
indefinitely without explanation. On April 27, 2012, DPH
announced that the exception list would be discontinued and
that no new vendor applications would be accepted or
processed. The alert claimed the moratorium would remain
in effect until its WIC program develops and implements an
effective cost containment and vendor management system, as
directed by the USDA. The alert also claimed that the WIC
program would need to gain USDA approval to authorize any
new stores.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, one-time
costs of about $100,000 (federal funds) over two years to
develop regulations.
SUPPORT : (Verified 7/3/12)
California Chamber of Commerce
California Farm Bureau Federation
California Grocers Association
California Retailers Association
Western Center on Law and Poverty
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The California Grocers Association
(CGA) supports this bill because it provides more certainty
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for WIC vendors by providing additional information prior
to and during a vendor application moratorium. Grocers
have made strong efforts at opening stores in both rural
and urban communities to provide access to healthy,
affordable food. When a moratorium is enacted, grocers are
less likely to expand operations into communities who may
need their services the most.
The Western Center on Law and Poverty (WCLP) believes this
bill is a conservative effort to achieve the goals of
improved processes for imposing moratoriums and managing
vendor communication. WCLP understands the importance of
ensuring adequate staff to support vendor authorizations in
an environment that requires special attention to
integrity. However, WCLP believes that the unique
public-private partnership upon which the WIC program is
balanced should be managed with transparency and
consideration for the planning needs of the retail
community seeking to serve populations where the majority
of residents are low-income.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 70-0, 5/25/12
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Beall, Block,
Blumenfield, Bonilla, Bradford, Brownley, Buchanan,
Butler, Charles Calderon, Campos, Carter, Cedillo,
Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Davis, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eng,
Feuer, Fong, Furutani, Beth Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick,
Gatto, Gordon, Gorell, Hagman, Halderman, Harkey,
Hayashi, Roger Hernández, Hill, Huber, Hueso, Huffman,
Jeffries, Jones, Lara, Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal, Mansoor,
Mendoza, Miller, Mitchell, Monning, Morrell, Nestande,
Nielsen, Norby, Olsen, Pan, V. Manuel Pérez, Portantino,
Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Swanson, Torres, Valadao,
Wagner, Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada, John A. Pérez
NO VOTE RECORDED: Atkins, Bill Berryhill, Fletcher,
Fuentes, Grove, Hall, Knight, Ma, Perea, Silva
CTW:d 7/5/12 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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