FILE: The House has advanced a bill that cuts $200 million in funding from WIC, which provides healthy foods to pregnant women, new moms and young children. Photo by Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post via Getty Images
The House has passed a budget bill that would cut $200 million in funding from WIC, the program that provides healthy foods to millions of children and pregnant women nationwide.
The WIC cuts would come at a time when grocery prices are rising, in part because of the Iran war and President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
House bill cuts WIC funding
What we know:
According to The Washington Post, the House voted 213-210 on the funding bill for fiscal year 2027. Four Democrats joined Republicans to pass the measure. Five Republicans voted against it.
By the numbers:
According to the progressive Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the cuts would slash more than $141 million in fruit and vegetable benefits for about 5.4 million WIC beneficiaries, including pregnant women, new mothers, toddlers and preschoolers.
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The National WIC Association said the cuts would lower monthly healthy food benefits from $52 to $13 for breastfeeding mothers and from $26 to $10 for young children.
What they're saying:
"The science-based increase to WIC’s fruit and vegetable benefits has led to meaningful improvements in how families eat," Georgia Machell, president and CEO of the National WIC Association, said in a statement. "Young children now consume an additional ¼ cup of fruits and vegetables per day, and parents report being better able to afford a healthier, more varied diet.
"The proposed cuts would reverse that progress, reducing benefits to levels that would meet just 19% of the recommended intake for children and 12% for breastfeeding mothers, short of what families need to support healthy growth and development."
The other side:
Rep. Andy Harris, a Maryland Republican and chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture, said the bill includes $8 billion in WIC funding, which "will fully fund the program," The Post reported.
"No woman or their children will lose or be denied coverage," Harris said.
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Harris pointed to a decline in participation in WIC during the current fiscal year, but experts told The Post that Republicans cited data that included last year’s government shutdown. The "widespread confusion" over which programs were still available led to a decrease in WIC participants, but more are expected to enroll this year as the cost of groceries continues to rise.
What's next:
The funding bill still has to be approved by the Senate.
What we don't know:
It’s unclear when the Senate will consider it, and whether the WIC funding cuts will be harder to pass in the upper chamber.
What is WIC?
The backstory:
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women and Children, widely known as WIC, has been in place since 1975. It’s described by the National WIC Association as "a short-term intervention program designed to influence lifetime nutrition and health behaviors in a targeted, high-risk population."
Though both are under the U.S. Department of Agriculture, WIC differs from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps, because SNAP participants can buy almost any grocery item they want — regardless of the nutritional value. With WIC, states use federal guidelines to choose products and quantities that vendors are required to carry; brands commonly found on WIC-approved lists include Cheerios, Juicy Juice and Similac.
According to the National WIC Association, Congress has a "30-year bipartisan history of fully funding WIC."
The Source: This report includes information from The Washington Post, the National WIC Association, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and The Associated Press.