The Laredo City Council on Oct. 20, 2025, voted to instruct the city manager to continue funding the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program and related public-health services if federal funding is paused, and approved a 90-day transition window to sustain operations while staff seek replacements or other funding.

Mayor Victor D. Trevino said the motion before the council was prompted by an uncertain federal funding picture for multiple public-health programs and asked that the city be prepared to maintain services if federal support were to stop. “I’d like the council to provide directions to the city manager to continue funding the WIC program and providing services to these families in the event that the city is informed by the federal government that there is no more funding,” Trevino said.

The vote follows a presentation from Laredo Public Health Director Dr. Richard Chamberlin, who outlined how a federal funding interruption would affect local services and staff. Chamberlin told the council that 102 full-time equivalent public-health positions across 13 programs are at risk under a funding pause and that the cost to fund those positions is about $251,000 per pay period. Removing WIC from that total, he said, would leave roughly 30 positions at risk at about $87,000 per pay period. “For WIC, we service more than 21,000 participants,” Chamberlin said, adding that a disruption would be “very, very destructive” for those families.

Chamberlin said the city received updated guidance from the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) rescinding an earlier Oct. 15 funding expiration notice and setting a reevaluation for Oct. 31. He also said WIC funding is secured through November 2025, citing information from the program’s local administrator.

City Manager Mr. Nepp described an operational policy the city has used since June to protect services after a grant interruption: a 90-day transition period funded from internal reserves while staff explore alternatives. “The city will continue providing a 90-day transition period of service continuity following the loss or interruption of any public-health grant,” Nepp said. He asked the council to formally authorize that approach and said the city previously used it to sustain multiple programs.

Council members seconded the mayor’s motion as amended to explicitly include Nepp’s 90-day transition window; the motion passed on a voice vote with no opposition recorded. Council members asked staff to notify the public and said they would convene another special meeting if longer-term decisions were required.

Officials provided a rough three-month estimate to recover WIC staff of about $565,000 and noted that while the city can sustain staff pay for the transition window, reloading participants’ WIC benefit cards after a funding pause would present operational challenges the city cannot fully handle without the federal funding stream.

The council’s action covers the WIC program and broader public-health programs funded through DSHS and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC). Chamberlin and city staff said they will continue monitoring state and federal guidance and update the council if conditions change or additional funding becomes unavailable.