Poor Moms and Children Are Caught in the Crossfire of the Shutdown

With the government shut down and no clear resolution in sight, a critical federal nutrition program that assists low-income mothers may soon run out of funding, leaving millions of poor families in the lurch.  

Unless Congress approves legislation to reopen the government, the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children may run out of funding in a matter of days. WIC, as the program is known, is a lifeline for nearly seven million low-income mothers and their children, providing them with access to free food to satisfy their nutritional needs. It also helps new mothers purchase baby formula and provides lactation counseling. Roughly 41 percent of all infants in the United States are supported by WIC.

The National WIC Association has warned that the program will run out of funding within one to two weeks of the onset of the shutdown, which began on Wednesday, putting those millions of participants at risk of losing access to healthy food and infant formula. “We really need Congress to come through sooner rather than later in order to prevent the crises that a shutdown would cause,” said Nell Menefee-Libey, the senior public policy manager at the National WIC Association.

Budget proposals from the White House and House GOP lawmakers earlier this year included cuts to WIC, but that hasn’t stopped Republicans from emphasizing the potential lapse in WIC funding as a reason for Democrats to come to the negotiating table. A spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget told ABC News that Democrats were “turning their back on WIC recipients.” House Speaker Mike Johnson claimed last week that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was holding WIC “hostage” by refusing to agree to a Republican proposal to keep the government open.

The estimate for how long WIC funding will last is dependent on actions by the federal government and the capabilities of individual states. The Agriculture Department has $150 million in contingency funds to spend on WIC, and states can use a small portion of funds from fiscal year 2025, which ended Tuesday, in fiscal year 2026. States can also request early rebates from infant formula manufacturers, essentially asking for an advance on funds to purchase formula. 

Unlike the last shutdown, which spanned 35 days from the end of 2018 through the beginning of 2019, the current lapse in government funding is occurring at the very beginning of the fiscal year. In 2019, states had already received some WIC funding from the federal government, meaning that it was easier to maintain the program. “States manage how they get their funding from the feds, and then manage how they spend it. So each state could have been different in 2018 as to where they were with their funding, but it wasn’t this dire of a situation,” said Kate Scully, the deputy director for WIC at the Food Research and Action Center.

If and when WIC does run out of funds, states may choose to fund it out of their own budgets. The Colorado state legislature has already approved $7.5 million to help keep the program afloat. States that floated funds for WIC during the 2014 government shutdown were later reimbursed. However, a state’s ability to provide that kind of temporary support is dependent on its own political and financial situation. “Not every state has that option available to them, either because of legislative or constitutional reasons, or because they’re in their own budget crises. So we would see real variation across the country once we get to the point where all federal funds have been expended,” said Menefee-Libey.

WIC has historically been one of the few programs aimed at low-income Americans that enjoys consistent bipartisan support. This trend seemed to be disrupted earlier this year, as the Trump administration’s proposed budget released this spring included cuts to WIC’s cash-value vouchers, which allow participants to buy fruits and vegetables. House Republicans also included cuts to that program in their funding bill for the USDA. However, the Senate agriculture appropriations bill provided sufficient funding to fully support WIC for the next fiscal year, according to advocates. Moreover, in September, the White House did ask Congress to fully fund WIC in a continuing resolution, or C.R., to keep the government open temporarily. Both parties introduced C.R.s that would have included spending flexibilities for WIC had they passed.

Unlike other automatically funded federal benefits, such as Medicare and Social Security, WIC is funded by annual appropriations legislation. Even so, Congress regularly passes C.R.s that allow for WIC funds to be spent faster, with the assumption that the program will be fully funded when a budget is eventually passed, said Scully. “WIC is in this unique position in that it operates as if it has all the funding in the world,” she added, “but that actually has to be appropriated every year.”

Being tied to the dysfunctional appropriations process makes WIC vulnerable, despite its popularity. Since the mid-1970s, Congress has passed its annual spending bills by the October 1 deadline only five times—the last time being in 1996. In recent years, Congress has primarily kept the government open through a mixture of C.R.s keeping funding at existing levels and massive “omnibus” legislation, which rolls separate appropriations bills into one package. Delays in approving appropriations measures thus put WIC at risk.

But the potential harm of a shutdown extends beyond a loss in funding. Scully worried that participants would not realize that WIC is still “open and operational,” although she added that they should check their state agency websites to receive more updated information. “If you are receiving WIC, you should use your benefits. If you have scheduled appointments, you should go to them,” she said. “We don’t want people not applying or not using the program right now, because it is operational and for the short term has funding.”

Then there are the potential long-term consequences of the continued threat to WIC. Menefee-Libey said that staff at WIC clinics worry about how “disruptions like this risk undermining trust in the program.” Mothers may lose faith WIC will be there for them when they need it the most—meaning that they may opt against participating in a program that would otherwise provide necessary assistance.

“Folks need to know that WIC will be there to support them regardless of what’s happening in the broader world,” said Menefee-Libey. “If we turn families away during that really vulnerable time, we risk not getting them back, and losing the opportunity to help a kiddo have the healthiest possible start to life and to help connect families to the benefits and resources that they need to thrive during that period.”