Congress must pass a spending plan by Jan. 19 to avoid a government shutdown.
While lawmakers announced a deal over the weekend, agreeing to spend $1.59 trillion in 2024, final negotiations and budget modifications could continue up until the deadline.
Child hunger relief advocates are watching the budget allocation for a program that supports new mothers and babies.
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) provides eligible families with nutritional and medical support, like discounted baby formula.
While it’s looking hopeful that Congress might avoid a government shutdown, which would keep programs like WIC from running out of money, there’s separate concern over the amount of money being allocated to the program for 2024.
The proposed spending plan would earmark around $6 billion dollars for WIC. Experts say that's compared to the around $7.5 billion it would take to fully fund the program.
“That’s the gap that we are concerned about because without that shortfall being addressed — that’s where we’re looking at WIC having to make really challenging decisions across the country, and here in Florida, about who is going to be able to receive services,” said Sky Beard, director of No Kid Hungry Florida.
The estimated $1 billion shortfall in funding would mean around two million parents of young children across the U.S. could be turned away from services, according to an analysis published by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
In Florida, Beard said that means almost a third of the more than 400,000 eligible pregnant women and new mothers in the state could find themselves waitlisted for services in 2024.
“We don’t really have a recent precedent … to see how that process of wait listing families … would be, how quickly those could be resolved, what processes states would use to potentially fill the gap,” she said.
If Congress adopts the current spending plan, Beard said it will mark the first time in nearly three decades that WIC failed to be fully funded by the federal government.
Ahead of the Jan. 19 deadline, anti-hunger advocates are asking congressional lawmakers to increase the budget allocation for WIC.
With more families becoming eligible for the program across the U.S., and in Florida, paired with the rising food costs over the past year, experts say that slashing funding for WIC would especially hurt families with young children.
On Thursday, during a virtual press conference, the Biden administration also called on Congress to fully fund the program.
"The longer Congress puts off fully funding WIC, the greater the risk to mothers, babies, and children seeking nutrition and health support from the program," according to a statement released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Gabriella Paul covers the stories of people living paycheck to paycheck in the greater Tampa Bay region for WUSF. She's also a Report for America corps member. Here’s how you can share your story with her.
