Millions of Women and Children Face Hunger as Funding Lapse Threatens Key Nutrition Program
Senate Democrats, appearing to move full steam ahead with plunging the country into a government shutdown, are mum on the consequences for millions of women and babies who could go hungry during a prolonged funding lapse.
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), which helps assist low-income parents and children with groceries, is expected to face substantial disruptions during a government shutdown. Despite the prospect of WIC running out of funding within days after a funding lapse, Senate Democrats have largely dismissed concerns that WIC recipients will not be able to access benefits during an indefinite shutdown.
“I don’t know what they’re [the White House] talking about,” Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, who has loudly opposed a clean government funding extension offered by Republicans, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “They didn’t write that budget with us, so you know, I don’t know what they’re referring to.”
“They obviously gutted funding for nutritional benefits,” Murphy continued. “They are leaving millions of kids hungry and starving. That’s the truth — because of the budget that passed in the spring.”
Democratic Delaware Rep. Sarah McBride similarly rejected the Trump administration’s claim that Democrats’ votes against funding the government could make millions of low-income parents and children suffer during a shutdown.
“It’s rich coming from an administration that’s turned its back on women, children and families with their cuts to SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program],” McBride said while also slamming Republicans for enacting Medicaid reforms in July.
Republicans have consistently argued they are strengthening SNAP and Medicaid to ensure the benefit programs remain financially sustainable in the long run while rooting out waste and abuse.
Government funding is slated to expire Wednesday at 12:01 a.m. if Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer does not lead Democrats in approving a House-passed stopgap plan that would temporarily fund government operations through Nov. 21. The GOP spending bill, opposed by nearly all Democrats, adds $600 million to the WIC program to avert a loss of benefits.
In a shutdown, the $8 billion nutrition program could cease new enrollments and current beneficiaries may not be unable to reload their cards. WIC provides support to 6.7 million low-income mothers and their children, including free healthy foods, infant formula and breastfeeding support and nutrition education.
A White House official told RealClearPolitics the program’s funding would be depleted in October and the administration would not be able to reprogram enough funds to provide vouchers for beneficiaries during a shutdown. It is unclear whether states — who administer the program locally using dollars provided by the federal government — could pool together contingency funds to keep the program running during a prolonged shutdown.
“The timing of this shutdown threat at the start of the fiscal year puts WIC at risk of rapidly running out of funds,” Georgia Machell, president and CEO of the National WIC Association, said in a statement obtained by NPR. “A prolonged federal government shutdown of more than one week puts WIC families at risk.”
Likely disruptions to WIC has not stopped Senate Democrats from arguing that shutting down the government over Trump unilaterally cancelling foreign aid spending outweighs preventing critical nutrition programs from going unfunded during a shutdown — despite no exit strategy in sight.
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