On January 10th, President Bush signed the Defense Appropriations Act (P.L. 107-117), which included $39 million in additional funding needed to more adequately fund the WIC program in the FY2002 fiscal year (10/101-9/30/02). The total appropriations is expected to serve an average monthly participation of slightly more than 7.5 million women, infants and children in fiscal year 2002. Over the course of the appropriations process, the estimated amount of funding needed to ensure all eligible women, infants and children access to the program had grown due to rising unemployment and the developing recession. Although the Agriculture Appropriations Act (P.L 107-76) funded WIC at a level of $4.348 billion dollars (an increase over both the House's and the Senate's original funding proposals and $345 million more than FY2001), WIC programs would have been forced to reduce caseloads without the additional $39 million.
See article on Grainnet.com for additional information.