Republicans and Democrats are duking it out in a battle of reciprocal blaming, but the potential loss of family meals, baby formula, fruits and vegetables could make millions of low-income Americans feel real pain from the government shutdown.
Advocates for families who rely on federal nutrition programs are alarmed that a vital food security program for low-income people could run out of funding in a week, as the shutdown enters its second week with little sign of resolution.
At stake is the nutritional safety net for 7 million Americans, including 186,000 Pennsylvania residents who rely on the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) for vital food and health programs every month. That figure includes 100,000 children and 41,000 infants in the commonwealth whose nutritional needs are provided by the federal program.
“There’s not a whole lot that we know definitively,” said Cristina Codario, the policy director at Pittsburgh-based Allies for Children. “There are some funds that make it possible for WIC to — in the next couple of weeks — potentially be okay in terms of the government shutdown but anything prolonged past a week or two is really where we’re going to start to see potential disruptions in services.”
What that disruption looks like is unclear, in part because in Pennsylvania, WIC is administered by a variety of agencies, including local health departments, non-profit groups and foundations and depending on the agency, the funding situation could vary.
Codario said based on information from the Department of Agriculture, which runs the program, WIC funding would definitely run out by the two-week mark, putting most programs in peril.
The program also provides breastfeeding support for new moms, nutrition education and health screenings.
“WIC is really such an important service for families that even a temporary disruption is going to be challenging for families,” Codario said.
USDA has an estimated $150 million contingency fund to sustain WIC for one week.
“I think there is a little bit more of a concern in this year as opposed to other years because WIC participation has increased over the years and so they’re working with smaller margins,” Codario said.
Gov. Josh Shapiro has stressed the state does not have the funds to backfill deficits that have been caused by federal funding cuts. In the case of the federal supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP), the state has few options, including an emergency declaration.
The commonwealth’s position is even more restricted given its budgetary impasse: The Legislature has passed 100 days without ratifying a state budget plan.
“In this instance, the Commonwealth does not have the ability to declare a public health emergency and pull-down additional funding for WIC, nor can we utilize dollars in the rainy day fund without a General Assembly appropriation,” said Mark O’Neill, press secretary for the Department of Health.
State health officials are awaiting further direction from the USDA, “as it remains unclear how long WIC services will continue without additional action at the federal level,” he added.
“The administration remains committed to supporting mothers and babies throughout the federal shutdown,” O’Neill said.
Dr. Aditi Vasan, a pediatrician and researcher with the PolicyLab at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, fears the potential for catastrophic impact on low-income families.
“I worry that if families lose access to WIC benefits, it’ll make it harder for them to afford nutritious food for their kids and that they might have to do things like diluting formula to make it last longer or choosing less healthy options for their kids because they can’t afford the food that they otherwise would have purchased with WIC,” she said.
Vasan said she has seen in her clinical practice the extent to which families rely on WIC to feed young children. Research that her lab conducted last year found that WIC had a profound impact on the nutritional quality of foods that parents are able to provide children.
“The foods that WIC covers are staples of children’s diet,” Vasan said. “But in particular, things like formula for infants, yogurt, milk, eggs, fruits and vegetables, and whole grains. We had a lot of families tell us that ‘because I receive WIC benefits, I can afford to feed my children fruits and vegetables and I can expose them to things like whole grains that I wouldn’t otherwise be able to.’”
The Trump administration on Tuesday announced tariff funds would be diverted to fund the program, but the idea drew immediate legal scrutiny, even from within the administration.
Chris Towner, policy director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, told CNN that the proposal raises legal questions about funds not appropriated by Congress.
“The problem isn’t that they don’t have the money — it’s that Congress hasn’t told them they can spend it,” he told the news outlet.
It is also not clear if the funding would be immediately available, as all federal funds are frozen until Congress passes a spending plan.
In the meantime, WIC continues to fuel divisiveness.
“The Democrats are so cruel in their continual votes to shut down the government that they forced the WIC program for the most vulnerable women and children to run out this week,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on X on Tuesday.
Rep. Scott Perry, a Pennsylvania Republican has voted along party lines for sweeping federal funding cuts and decried a government that “is too big and wasting too much money…”
Perry last week on X posted a photo of himself and Andrea Faiano, organizer of Bread for the World, who he thanked for meeting with him about “the need for funding WIC.”
Perry voted in favor of the newly enacted GOP tax bill known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which did not directly cut funding for WIC, but slashed funding to Medicaid and SNAP. Both programs are considered to have related eligibility for WIC, meaning restriction to one will impact the other.
At the center of the federal government shutdown is the battle over health care premium subsidies, which Democrats have insisted must continue to stave off prohibitive spikes in premiums for millions of Americans and Republicans decry as pandemic-era wasteful spending.
Stuart Haniff, executive director of Hunger-Free Pennsylvania, warns lawmakers to put politics aside for the sake of families.
The charitable food network, he said, is being buffeted by a trickle-down effect, with funding cuts to food banks and programs like SNAP and WIC having outsized impact across the entire spectrum.
“Right now we’re seeing unprecedented federal cuts. We’re seeing really something we’ve never seen before, a demand in food bank need that exceeds the levels during the pandemic and obviously skyrocketing prices,” Haniff said. “More people than ever are relying upon the food charitable food network and resources are harder to find. A prolonged federal government shutdown of more than one week puts babies and young children at risk.”
Haniff said advocates like him are witnessing something extraordinary: a demand at food banks that exceeds the levels during the pandemic.
Given the pressure on the charitable food network and the simultaneous state and federal budget impasse, the food security horizon for Pennsylvanians is bleak.
“I think this is a time that people can little afford to lose the benefits that they have and that’s what they’re faced with,” said Haniff, whose organization is a part of Pennsylvania Hunger Action Coalition.
“The longer the federal government shutdown goes on, coupled with the state budget impasse, the more vulnerable our already vulnerable Pennsylvanians and food insecure population are. People are going without food already. I think it’s just a perfect storm for disaster in terms of those who are already food insecure.”