II 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 3216 

To amend the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 to require the Secretary of 

Agriculture to establish a publicly available database of bid solicitations 

for infant formula under the special supplemental nutrition program 

for women, infants, and children. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

NOVEMBER 17, 2021 

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 establish a publicly available 

database of bid solicitations for infant formula under 

the special supplemental nutrition program for women, 

infants, and children. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘WIC Healthy Begin5 nings Act of 2021’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. DATABASE OF BID SOLICITATIONS FOR INFANT 

2 FORMULA UNDER THE WIC PROGRAM. 

3 Section 17(h)(8)(A) of the Child Nutrition Act of 

4 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1786(h)(8)(A)) is amended by adding at 

5 the end the following: 

6 ‘‘(xi) DATABASE OF BID SOLICITA7 TIONS.— 

8 ‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—Not later 

9 than 180 days after the date of enact10 ment of this clause, the Secretary 

11 shall make available to the public on 

12 a website of the Department of Agri13 culture a fully searchable database 

14 that shall contain the information de15 scribed in items (aa) through (dd) of 

16 subclause (II) relating to bid solicita17 tions of State agencies for infant for18 mula under the program. 

19 ‘‘(II) STATE AGENCIES.—In so20 liciting bids for infant formula under 

21 the program, a State agency shall 

22 submit to the Secretary, not later 

23 than 5 business days after the date of 

24 the bid solicitation, a description of 

25 the bid solicitation, including— 


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1 ‘‘(aa) the title of the bid so2 licitation and the State agency 

3 administering the bid solicitation; 

4 ‘‘(bb) the website hyperlink 

5 and other information needed for 

6 the purpose of submitting a bid 

7 in response to the bid solicitation; 

8 ‘‘(cc) the contact informa9 tion and website hyperlink for 

10 the State agency administering 

11 the bid solicitation, for the pur12 pose of gathering additional in13 formation relating to the bid so14 licitation; and 

15 ‘‘(dd) the period during 

16 which bids are accepted or the 

17 due date for bids, as applicable, 

18 under the bid solicitation. 

19 ‘‘(III) PUBLICATION.—Not later 

20 than 5 days after receiving a descrip21 tion of a bid solicitation under sub22 clause (II), the Secretary shall publish 

23 the information on the database es24 tablished under subclause (I). 


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1 ‘‘(IV) GUIDANCE.—The Sec2 retary shall issue guidance to imple3 ment this clause. 

4 ‘‘(V) LIABILITY LIMITATION.—A 

5 State, State agency, or the Federal 

6 Government shall not be liable in a 

7 civil suit or claim in a State or Fed8 eral court based on the performance 

9 or failure to perform a duty, function, 

10 or activity required by this clause.’’. 

Æ 


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