Hundreds of Thousands of Young Children and Postpartum Adults Would Be Turned Away from WIC under House and Senate Funding Levels

Hundreds of Thousands of Young Children and Postpartum Adults Would Be Turned Away from WIC under House and Senate Funding Levels

 

As Congress considers appropriations bills for the fiscal year 2024, new data confirm that WIC needs significant additional funding — well beyond the amounts provided in current House and Senate bills — to maintain a long-standing, bipartisan commitment to avoid turning away eligible families and to give the participants the current science-based food benefit.

Under the House bill, which may come to the floor for a vote this week, we estimate that 650,000 to 750,000 eligible people — primarily toddlers, preschoolers, and postpartum adults — would be turned away from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another 4.6 million toddlers and preschoolers and pregnant, postpartum, and breastfeeding participants would have their benefits cut significantly. The House bill would cut food assistance for, or take it away altogether from, roughly 5.3 million young children and pregnant, postpartum, and breastfeeding adults.

We estimate that even the Senate’s higher funding level would require states to turn away 700,000 to 800,000 postpartum adults and young children, but those who are enrolled in WIC would receive full benefits.

Time is of the essence. States need more money at the start of the fiscal year, along with an assurance that full-year funding will be adequate, or they may well start taking steps to cut enrollment even before final funding levels are settled for the year.

For more info please read this link: https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/hundreds-of-thousands-of-young-children-and-postpartum-adults-would-be