Applicability of the Department Nonprocurement Suspension and Debarment Regulations to Farmers in the WIC FMNP

Recently we were asked to clarify whether farmers or farmers' markets participating in the FMNP were excluded from the certification requirements set forth in Departmental regulations 7 CFR Part 3017, Non-procurement Suspension and Debarment. This rule requires persons who are applying to participate in covered transactions at both the primary and lower-tier level to certify that neither they nor their principals are presently debarred, suspended, or proposed for debarment by any federal department or agency under the government-wide non-procurement, debarment and suspension regulations. Covered transactions include numerous types of non-procurement transactions in the Department's domestic assistance programs including grants, cooperative agreements, scholarships, fellowships, loans, loan guarantees, subsidies, insurance payments, payments for specified use and donation agreements.

We have concluded that neither the authorization of farmers or farmers' markets nor the exchange of a FMNP coupon between a certified FMNP recipient and an approved farmer or farmers' markets in the FMNP represents "covered transactions". Therefore, farmers or farmers' markets in the FMNP are not subject to the certification requirements stated at 7 CFR Part 3017.