Nearly 2 Million Mothers and Children Could Be Without Food Assistance If Congress Doesn’t Maintain Funding for Federal WIC Program
A federal nutrition assistance program that helps feed millions of women and children could face a severe spending cut this year if congressional lawmakers don’t shore up the money needed to keep it running.
Funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, also known as WIC, is at risk of being cut if Congress doesn’t invest $1 billion to meet its current demands. Otherwise, the program will face a significant shortfall.
In the measure Congress just passed to keep to avert a temporary government shutdown, no additional funding was included for WIC.
According to the New Republic, the WIC budget has been a priority on both sides of the aisle and Congress has passed sufficient funding for the program every year since 1997.
Sen. Patty Murray, the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, shared that stopping the trend now would be unacceptable, especially in the coming weeks when lawmakers will start finalizing spending bills.
“As I’ve said repeatedly, Failing to fully fund WIC for the first time ever is not acceptable to me — and as we continue working to negotiate and pass full-year spending bills, I am fighting to ensure WIC has the resources it needs to keep serving eligible families and help kids thrive, just as it has for decades,” the Washington state Democrat said in a statement.
If Congress decides to move forward without sufficiently funding the program, several states will have to implement waiting lists and, in some cases, discontinue benefits entirely to participants.
It’s estimated that roughly two million mothers and children could be cut off from the program benefits if WIC funding levels aren’t sustained, according to The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. In 2022, data shows that nearly 40 percent of all infants in the U.S. received benefits.
Some states have made cuts to other food assistance programs. More than a dozen states have opted out of the Summer EBT Program, which provides the families of students who receive free or reduced lunch during the school year with electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards that can be used to purchase groceries in the summer.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves stated his reasons for withdrawing from the program are directly in line with his desire to reject “attempts to expand the welfare state.”
The summer program stems from a pandemic EBT program that provided benefits to students during the school year if their primary instruction method was through virtual or hybrid means. That program was fully funded by the federal government, but its summer version would require states to cover half of the administrative expenses, which is why some states chose to opt out.
As for the federal WIC program, it like other social safety net programs, could face deep spending cuts as the Democratic-controlled Senate and Republican-majority House go to blows about how to pass a full-year spending budget. The stopgap bill that was passed last week will only keep the government funded through March.