WASHINGTON – Millions of women and children could lose out on special food benefits if the federal government stays shut down for long.
Unlike Social Security, Medicare and the program formerly known as “food stamps,” which have automatic funding sources, the much smaller Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children will run out of money if Congress doesn’t reopen the government.
Republicans and the White House have repeatedly highlighted the peril to WIC, as it’s known, after most Senate Democrats voted against a government funding bill and federal agencies shuttered on Wednesday.
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Usually, it’s Democrats demanding the government remain funded, but they’re holding out for health care policy changes. And in past shutdowns, it’s been Democrats blasting Republicans for jeopardizing access to programs like WIC.
“The Women, Infants and Children program, community health center funding, Medicare treatment options and other health programs are now all at risk because of the Democrats rejecting the clean CR,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday, referring to a “continuing resolution” that would have funded the government into November.
“The most vulnerable in our country are being punished because the Democrats want to prioritize illegals over American citizens,” Leavitt said.
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The idea that Democrats shut the government to help illegal immigrants get free health care is highly dubious, but WIC recipients could indeed be unable to use their benefits if the shutdown goes on for more than a couple of weeks. According to the National WIC Association, an organization that advocates for the program’s provider agencies, benefits will remain available for only a week or two. Outcomes could vary by state.
More than 1.5 million women are enrolled in the program, along with 1.5 million infants and 3.8 million children under the age of 6. It works similarly to the much larger Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, with funds deposited onto debit cards that can be used for food purchases at grocery stores. The major difference is that the money can only be used for healthy food. It accounts for more than half of the infant formula purchased in the U.S.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that Republicans are not actually champions of WIC.
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“The reason why the Trump administration is threatening now to cut funding for Women, Infants and Children, is because they can’t stand that program,” said Jeffries. “In every other shutdown that Republicans have caused, including in the 35-day shutdown that Donald Trump presided over in 2018 and 2019, funding for Women, Infants and Children, their health, their nutrition and their well being, was maintained.”
The 2018 shutdown started in December of that year, after states had already received WIC funding for the next fiscal year. That’s not the case this time.
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“The timing of this shutdown at the start of the new fiscal year puts WIC at risk of rapidly running out of funds,” National WIC Association president Georgia Machell said this week. “This failure needlessly jeopardizes the health and nutrition of millions of pregnant women, new mothers, infants, and young children who rely on WIC.”
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The Trump administration has not expressed antipathy for WIC or sought to make dramatic changes like it has for SNAP, which is getting extra work requirements and new restrictions on what enrollees can buy with their benefits. It appears that WIC is merely falling victim to the lapse in congressional appropriations, rather than an attack by the Office of Management and Budget, which has otherwise used the shutdown as a pretext to target projects in blue states.
“By instigating a government shutdown, Democrats would be turning their back on WIC recipients,” an OMB spokesperson said in an email. “The program would run out of money in October and women and children could no longer receive benefits.”