Senators Booker, Stabenow and Representatives Underwood, Frankel, McBath, Adams Lead 163 Colleagues in Calling for Full WIC Funding for 2024 Fiscal Year

Letter

Dear Majority Leader Schumer, Minority Leader McConnell, Speaker Johnson and Minority Leader Jeffries,

We write to highlight the urgent funding shortfall facing the Special Supplemental Nutrition
Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) that poses a significant and immediate risk to
vulnerable young children and pregnant and postpartum women. We urge you to ensure any final
appropriations package fully funds the WIC program for fiscal year 2024 (FY24) in order to
avert disastrous participation or benefit cuts.

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. 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.

Higher-than-expected program participation and rising food costs mean WIC funding levels
proposed in both the House and Senate annual appropriations bills fall far short of what is needed
for FY24. In recognition of the urgency of this shortfall, the Biden Administration has requested
Congress provide $1.4 billion in emergency funding for WIC.If Congress fails to act and
continues WIC's current funding level for the rest of the fiscal year, approximately 2 million
pregnant and postpartum women and young children would be turned away from the program by
September 2024-- an inexcusable outcome.

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.

But even if states can, to some degree, avoid waiting lists, many participants would still be
harmed by a shortfall. States are expected to reduce outreach, limit clinic hours, and leave staff
vacancies unfilled to reduce spending, which are measures that impact all potentially eligible
people. Additionally, once word gets out that states cannot serve certain applicants, people who
are more medically at-risk and would be prioritized for participation may mistakenly believe that they would be denied benefits and decide not to apply. We also know that any cuts to specific WIC services, particularly the evidence-based fruit and vegetable incentives program, would undermine the program's effectiveness. We urge you to reject any proposal that eliminates or cuts fruit and vegetable vouchers, or any other WIC service.

America's maternal health crisis is growing worse by the day, and further disruption to WIC in
the coming months would be catastrophic. As you work to finalize a government funding
package, we urge you to fully fund WIC and protect vulnerable women and children from losing
access to the vital support that WIC provides. Thank you for your attention to this important
matter.

Source