More than 150 members of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate are encouraging congressional leadership to protect the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) in the 2024 fiscal year.
A bipartisan majority of Congress has voted to fully fund WIC every year since 1997, and now 169 lawmakers have sent a letter to house Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, as well as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, to make sure any final appropriations package fully funds WIC so that mothers, children and families who rely on the program can access the support they need.
The members detailed the risks of not adequately funding the program. WIC is a critical nutrition program that provides healthy food, breastfeeding support, nutrition education, health care referrals and other key interventions for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, and infants and children up to age 5 who are found to be at nutritional risk.
If Congress fails to fully fund WIC, more than 120,000 mothers and children in Virginia and up to 2 million participants across the United States will likely lose access to the program or be unable to enroll.
“WIC is a vital lifeline for millions of vulnerable American families. It provides nutritious foods, nutrition education, breastfeeding support, health care referrals, and other important services to nearly 7 million low-income pregnant and postpartum participants, infants, and young children nationwide,” the lawmakers wrote. “For more than 25 years, there has been a bipartisan commitment to provide adequate funding for WIC to serve every eligible family that relies on the program and to ensure that those in need are not turned away. At the foundation of this commitment is substantial evidence of WIC’s positive impacts on the health and development of its participants.”
The letter is led in the U.S. Senate by U.S. Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, and in the U.S. House by U.S. Reps. Lauren Underwood of Illinois0, Lois Frankel of Florida, Lucy McBath of Georgia and Alma Adams of North Carolina.
U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia also joined the effort.
“If Congress fails to fully fund WIC, states will soon be forced to start turning eligible families away. Eligible applicants and current participants, primarily postpartum women who are not breastfeeding and children, could be put on waiting lists — leaving them without the services they rely on indefinitely. There are more than half a million current WIC participants who are pregnant and will need to renew their benefits shortly after giving birth. Under a funding shortfall, some of these new mothers could see their benefits halted. These new moms would lose access to WIC’s nutritious foods at a time that is critical for their health and their child’s development. Such devastating outcomes would disproportionately impact people of color, who are already at higher risk for severe pregnancy-related health issues including maternal mortality,” the letter states.
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Rebecca Barnabi
