9 months ago
39
House Republicans are once again targeting food aid—in this case, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC—and Senate Democrats are entering the fight a few steps behind. It’s totally predictable on the part of House Republicans: They want to keep hundreds of thousands of toddlers and new moms out of the program, and to cut funds for fruits and vegetables for millions more people who are getting WIC. That’s Republican policy.
The situation in the Senate is more complicated: The bipartisan Senate appropriations bill that includes WIC funds the program to the level President Joe Biden requested earlier in the year but costs have risen more than projected, so the funding would fall short, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports. The House plan would turn away 650,000 to 750,000 eligible people—and again, those people are mostly toddlers, preschoolers, and breastfeeding women. It would also cut a fruits and vegetables benefit put into place as part of the American Rescue Plan and continued since with bipartisan support.
Senate Democrats, in agreement with the Biden budget plan, are allocating $6.3 billion to WIC for the 2024 fiscal year, a $615 million increase over 2023. The Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously moved that forward in June. The problem is that due to enrollment growing more than predicted, CBPP now estimates that the true need is $7.2 to $7.3 billion, so the Senate plan would also turn hundreds of thousands of people away from WIC. It would, however, leave benefits intact for those already in the program. House Republicans, on the other hand, want to cut WIC to $185 million below its 2023 level.
