OLYMPIA, WA – Washington women and their babies could lose access to benefits under a key nutrition program in the case of a prolonged federal government shutdown.
The Women, Infants and Children program, or WIC, has about two weeks’ worth of funding to keep feeding low-income Washingtonians, according to the state Department of Health. But if participation rises beyond current levels, that could be more like one week.
Nicole Flateboe, executive director of Nutrition First, the state’s WIC association, pegged the available contingency funding on Tuesday as lasting one week.
She called money running out a “disaster.”
“We will have babies being born to low-income women who will not have any breastfeeding support, and they will have no way to get infant formula if they’re not breastfeeding,” Flateboe said.
The program’s plight is one of the clearest examples of how a shutdown could affect everyday Washingtonians who aren’t federal employees at risk of furlough. Unlike entitlement programs like food stamps, WIC is subject to the annual federal appropriations in Congress, making it susceptible to a shutdown.
The White House has also signalled there would be no money to accept new WIC applicants starting immediately, meaning no new babies getting fed under the program.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported Tuesday that WIC would continue during the shutdown “subject to the availability of funding.”
The federal government shutdown began at midnight Tuesday, as Republicans and Democrats in Congress couldn’t find agreement on short-term funding to keep the government open. Most Democrats refuse to support a stopgap funding bill that doesn’t extend subsidies that help people afford health insurance, and Republicans haven’t budged on this issue.
This is the first federal government shutdown in almost seven years.
In Washington, over 200 clinics serve over 212,000 women and their children under 5 years old annually under the WIC program, according to the state. WIC helps nearly one-third of all newborn babies. The U.S. Department of Agriculture funds the program, while the state Department of Health administers it.
Nationally, the program serves nearly 7 million Americans.
WIC helps mothers with access to healthy food, breastfeeding support, nutrition education and health screenings. Research has shown participation in the program helps limit low birth weights and reduce maternal mortality.
“The services that WIC provides reduce infant deaths, improve the growth of infants and children, increase immunization rates, increase access to community supports, and help ensure early prenatal care for pregnant participants,” Brittany Tybo, director of the Department of Health’s Office of Nutrition Services, said in a press release. “All of these benefits are at risk for WIC families, and the risk increases the longer the shutdown continues.”
The agency advises families on WIC to keep using their benefits as usual.
A shutdown at the start of the federal fiscal year like this one is particularly challenging, as states have little funding left over and haven’t received funding for the new fiscal year. The week’s worth of contingency is made up of WIC money not yet used.
The state Department of Health said a shutdown would result in temporary layoffs or work hour reductions starting Oct. 6 for about 50 employees whose jobs are tied to federal dollars. Most are in the division that manages WIC.
Flateboe thinks this will result in confusion for enrollees, as they seek help from staff unfamiliar with the program. And the Trump administration’s staffing cuts in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service have already hampered its ability to help, she said.
“It’s a big mess,” Flateboe said. “We don’t have a lot of trust that the USDA is going to handle this real seamlessly.”
In Colorado, state lawmakers on Tuesday approved millions in funding to backfill WIC assistance due to the shutdown.
Food stamps doled out via the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, can continue for 30 days during a shutdown.
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