Congress Urged to Fully Fund WIC Program, Avert Crisis

WASHINGTON — The Biden-Harris administration on Wednesday urged Congress to fully fund the WIC nutrition assistance program come January, warning that the failure to address a much-anticipated budgetary shortfall would jeopardize the health and safety of millions of mothers, babies and children.

The looming crisis is a byproduct of Congress failing to pass appropriation bills on time and opting instead to fund government programs through continuing resolutions, which sets departments and agencies on a course analogous to a family living paycheck to paycheck.

The continuing resolution crisis is nothing new — Congress has enacted one or more so-called “CRs” in all but three of the past 47 fiscal years since the start of the fiscal year was changed to Oct. 1 in 1977.

These resolutions typically provide short-term funding at the prior fiscal year’s appropriations levels, and prohibit “new activities” not funded in that prior year.

Last month, Congress passed the latest of these stopgap funding measures, putting off any potentially nasty spending fights until after the holidays.

Under the plan put forward by then newly minted House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., the latest continuing resolution had two parts.

The first would fund a portion of the government, including the departments of Agriculture, Transportation, Housing and Urban Affairs and Veterans Affairs, through Jan 19.

The Defense Department and other remaining parts of the federal government are funded through the second portion of the resolution, which extends through Feb. 2.

The issues related to WIC, more formally known as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, stems from the first tranche of the resolution as the program falls under the auspices of the Department of Agriculture.

“When it passed the continuing resolution, Congress indicated that the Agriculture Department and its state partners in WIC should spend the currently allocated funding at a faster rate in order to serve everyone who is eligible for the first half of the fiscal year,” explained Deputy Agriculture Secretary Xochitl Torres Small during a conference call with reporters on Wednesday morning.

“That takes us through March 2024, but so far, Congress hasn’t provided the funds to cover the program once those resources run out,” she continued.

“That means that if Congress does not address the needed funding when they ultimately pass a full-year appropriation, the impact of cuts would be magnified because USDA will have to absorb all of them in the final months of the fiscal year,” Torres Small said.

Describing the situation in dollars and cents terms, the deputy Agriculture secretary said the department could see as much as a $1 billion shortfall if Congress fails to intervene, an amount equivalent to about one-and-a-half months of benefits for all program beneficiaries.

Looked at another way, she said, the $1 billion shortfall is equal to the estimated cost of providing six months of benefits to all of the pregnant women and infants currently participating in the program.

Currently, WIC serves 53% of all infants born in the United States. In September 2023, 6.65 million people were participating in the program.

Torres Small predicted that the shortfall could lead to states needing to impose waiting lists for breastfeeding and postpartum women, and a fact sheet distributed by the White House suggested as many as 2 million eligible people seeking assistance could be turned away by September 2024.

In some states, the hit would potentially be huge, with the numbers having to be turned away without aid topping 288,000 in California alone, 227,000 in Texas, 126,000 in Florida, and 124,000 in New York.

Closer to the nation’s capital, about 37,000 Virginia residents would be forced to forgo WIC assistance, as would 36,000 in Maryland, and about 3,000 in the District of Columbia.

“In a country as wealthy as ours, there is no reason states should be forced to implement waiting lists or take other devastating steps and not cover people who need it,” said Neera Tanden, director of the Domestic Policy Council.

Referring to the numbers on the White House fact sheet, Tanden said a programmatic failure of that magnitude “is simply unacceptable.”

“Depriving eligible families of WIC would worsen hunger and hardship. No one deserves that,” she said. 

Torres Small said the situation is particularly upsetting because most of the decision-makers believe WIC works, and it has long enjoyed strong bipartisan support.

“Studies show that WIC participation during pregnancy decreases infant deaths, premature births, and that it has also helped reduce the risk of low birth weights,” she said. “And there’s also ample evidence that participation in the program in early childhood has been associated with higher test scores later on.”

Also on the call were Grace Hou, Illinois deputy governor for Health and Human Services, and Georgia Mitchell, interim president and chief executive officer of the National WIC Association.

In addition to echoing the remarks of the previous speakers on the call, Hou emphasized the health care and other savings that have been achieved through the program.

“But all of this progress could be lost if we’re forced to scale back the program in the coming year,” she said.

“Among other things, WIC requires the expenditure of administrative funds so that we can perform nutrition assessments, counseling and education by trained staff so that we can safeguard the health of low-income women, infants and children up to the age of five,” she said.

“Furthermore, adequate funding allows local WIC providers to hire and retain adequate staff to work with eligible families and to conduct outreach to connect them with the benefits,” Hou said. 

“Our country has had a decadeslong commitment to this program. … And we’re just seeing our way forward after the challenges of recent years associated with the pandemic,” she continued. “We cannot afford to take any steps backwards.”

Mitchell said during her years with the National WIC Association she’s seen “the work and dedication” of program staffers up close, and knows “what a huge difference this program has made in the lives of millions of people.”

“However, in all my years here, I can’t ever recall a moment when we’ve faced such promise and such peril at the same time,” she said.

“The promise is remarkable,” she continued. “Over the past few years, WIC participation has increased significantly, helping more moms have healthy pregnancies and giving young kids a healthy start in life. Participants have received major increases in their fruits and vegetable benefits, helping them afford nutritious foods that help them thrive. Increased flexibilities like remote certification and online benefit redemption have made the program more accessible than ever. And USDA is proposing rules to further enhance the nutritional quality of the food package and help more participants spend benefits online.

“And yet all of this progress is at significant risk,” Mitchell said. 

“For nearly 50 years, no matter who controlled the White House or Congress, WIC and the needs of the people it serves were needs that were always met. Today, however, that compact is on really shaky ground,” she said.

“Rising participation and higher food costs mean WIC needs more funding to do its job. The Biden administration has recognized the need and asked Congress for additional funding. That request, however, came months ago, and Congress has not acted,” Mitchell said.

“Even worse, some in Congress are proposing to slash WIC funding by hundreds of millions of dollars. There is no health or economic justification for such deep cuts, but they’re unfortunately on the table. The consequences would be devastating,” she continued. “Turning away people who need help, instead of welcoming them, would go against everything my colleagues and state and local WIC offices believe in and fight for, but our hands will be tied. There is no replacement for federal dollars. Our message to Congress is simple: fully fund WIC. Meet the moment. Millions of women, children and babies are counting on you. We can’t let them down.”

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue