U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) and U.S. Representatives Maria Salazar (R-FL), Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), and Stephanie Bice (R-OK) introduced the Access to Donor Milk Act of 2023 (S. 2819/H.R. 5486). The bipartisan legislation would help increase life-saving access to donor milk for more families by:

• Allowing agencies to use Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) funding to promote the need for and benefits of donor milk and allowing WIC funds to support donor milk activities in states, tribes, and territories;
• Providing emergency capacity-building funding ($3 million) for milk banks in the event that there is a rapid increase in demand for donor milk, as occurred during the 2022 formula shortage;
• Creating a donor milk awareness program at the Department of Health and Human Services ($1 million) to educate the public on donor milk, nonprofit milk banks, and to publicize the need for donor milk; and
• Requiring that the Secretary of Health and Human Services draft guidance that addresses appropriate standards for collection, processing, handling, transfer, and storage of donor milk and requiring the Secretary to convene a public meeting to inform this guidance.