Congress Must Act to Fully Fund WIC in 2024, Or Risk Nutrition Security for Millions of Women, Infants and Children

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13, 2023 – The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provided vital nutrition assistance to nearly 6.7 million pregnant women, new mothers, babies, and young children across the country in September of this year (see table). For the past 25 years, Congress, on a bipartisan basis, has committed to fully funding WIC to serve every eligible pregnant woman, infant, mother, and child who applies. But this year, despite repeated Administration requests, Congress has yet to fully fund this vital program. Without the necessary additional funding, millions of eligible pregnant women, new mothers, infants, and young children are at risk of missing out on WIC’s critical nutrition assistance at some point next year.

WIC costs are higher this year than last year, in part because more eligible people are signing up for the program – meaning more pregnant women, new mothers, infants, and children are getting access to nutritious food and important health resources they need to thrive. However, in the two Continuing Resolutions enacted so far this year, Congress did not provide the additional $1 billion in estimated funding needed to ensure WIC can serve all those who seek its services in fiscal year 2024.

It is critical that Congress provide additional funding for WIC in the January appropriation. The longer Congress puts off fully funding WIC, the greater the risk to mothers, babies, and children seeking nutrition and health support from the program. Through the two recent Continuing Resolutions, Congress has indicated that the U.S. Department of Agriculture and states should spend current funding at a faster rate in order to serve everyone who is eligible for the first half of the fiscal year (or through March 2024), but they haven’t provided the funds to cover the program once those resources run out. 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.

To illustrate the scale of the funding shortfall at this point in the year: If Congress were to fund the program at the current, lower Continuing Resolution level for the remaining months of the fiscal year, the $1 billion shortfall that will occur is equivalent to 1.5 months of benefits for all program beneficiaries. The $1 billion shortfall also equals the estimated cost of providing six months of benefits to all pregnant women and infants participating in WIC.

A federal funding shortfall of this magnitude presents states with difficult, untenable decisions about how to manage the program. Many states would likely implement waiting lists for applicants to reduce costs. Under program rules, waiting lists would be implemented first for non-breastfeeding postpartum women, next for children ages 1 to 5 years old who do not have higher-risk medical issues, and then for pregnant and breastfeeding women and infants who do not have higher-risk medical issues. But given the size of the funding shortfall, it is likely that waiting lists would stretch across all participant categories, affecting both new applicants and mothers, babies, and young children enrolled in the program who are up for renewal of benefits.

To provide a sense of the number of people whose benefits could be at risk if states turned to waiting lists, even for short periods, USDA estimates that 810,000 eligible people apply for WIC services in a given month nationwide, which includes those new to the program and those whose WIC benefits are up for renewal. Many states would likely have to utilize waiting lists for an extended period to address the funding gap that would result if Congress funded WIC at the Continuing Resolution level for the rest of the year.

Estimated Number of Applicants WIC Clinics Process Monthly in FY 2024

Indeed, it is possible that even waitlisting applicants and taking other cost-cutting measures like reducing clinic hours would not be enough to close the shortfall. In that case, some states might be forced to discontinue or suspend benefits for current participants – which is allowed by program rules as a last resort.

Cutting off access to WIC for pregnant women, new mothers, and infants and children would have severe and harmful consequences. An abundance of research shows the critical role that WIC plays in supporting maternal health and child development. WIC participation during pregnancy is associated with lower risk of preterm birth, lower risk of low birthweight, and lower risk of infant mortality. Children on WIC are also more likely to consume a healthier diet, and this impact grows the longer a child stays on WIC.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service recently found that household food insecurity increased last year, at a time when significant safety net enhancements that helped people through the worst of the pandemic began to end, and the enhanced Child Tax Credit enacted in the American Rescue Plan expired. More than half of food insecure families reported gaining assistance through federal nutrition programs like WIC to make ends meet—an indication of how important the programs are in helping to support families, and what’s at risk if Congress cuts or underfunds them.

Nearly 40 percent of America’s infants participate in WIC, which is available only to pregnant women, new mothers, infants, and children who meet income guidelines and are determined to be at nutritional risk by a health professional. Families with young children, particularly infants, can struggle to make ends meet. The Biden-Harris Administration understands this and is committed to giving America’s children the healthiest start at a good life. Curbing access to nutrition security programs like WIC is counter to this effort and instead punishes parents and children.

Appendix:

Table A1: State WIC Participation, September 2023

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