Potential deal to fund WIC food aid faces blowback

By Tami Luhby and Haley Talbot, CNN

(CNN) — With a partial government shutdown looming at the end of next week, House leaders are discussing an agreement that would provide extra nutrition assistance for new moms and young children, addressing one big sticking point in the federal funding negotiations.

But the possible deal is already facing a lot of criticism from advocates and businesses for the trade-off it would involve: a pilot program that would limit the items that food stamp participants could buy.

The potential agreement would provide more money for WIC, the food assistance program for millions of low-income pregnant women, new mothers, infants and young children that is facing a $1 billion shortfall that could cut aid to about 2 million people.

House Republicans have proposed cutting funding for the program, but soaring enrollment prompted the White House to ask for an additional $1.4 billion for fiscal year 2024 to avoid having to initiate waitlists for benefits for the first time since the late 1990s. The Biden administration is now requesting $1 billion to address the current shortfall.

In exchange for more WIC support, Rep. Andy Harris, who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture, is pushing a SNAP-choice pilot initiative that would allow recipients in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to buy only nutrient-dense items that follow dietary guidelines. That would likely cut out food such as soda, candy and certain snacks – long a goal of conservatives.

“It’s no secret Dr. Harris would like to see the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) returned to what it was originally authorized in Congress to do, which is to ‘safeguard the health and well-being of the nation’s population by raising levels of nutrition among low-income households,’” Anna Adamian, spokeswoman for the Maryland Republican, told CNN, noting that negotiations are still ongoing.

House leaders are discussing the potential deal, which was first reported by Politico, but caution that it could fall apart, a GOP leadership aide told CNN.

WIC funding is one of a multitude of disagreements that lawmakers must overcome to approve a fiscal year 2024 federal spending plan. Current funding for several agencies – including the US Department of Agriculture, which oversees WIC – lasts until March 1 and for remaining departments until March 8.

Opposition mounts

Advocates for WIC, formally known as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, and grocery industry groups whose members would likely be affected by the pilot program are already lining up against the trade-off. The WIC program, which launched 50 years ago, has enjoyed bipartisan support for several decades and has been shown to improve families’ health.

“Congress needs to cut the partisan games and stop gambling with the well-being of families,” Georgia Machell, interim CEO of the National WIC Association, said in a statement. “The time for political distractions is over.”

The food stamp program works well because processing transactions is easy for retailers and recipients, the National Grocers Association wrote in a letter Tuesday to congressional leaders. It allows families to decide what food is best for them and enables them to shop in the same way as other customers.

“Restricting eligible items to those approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture will quickly drive-up food costs and strangle the program with needless red tape with no meaningful public health outcome to show in return,” the association wrote in the letter, which was signed by nearly 2,500 businesses and trade groups. “The government will need to categorize more than 600,000 products and update the list each year with thousands more products. Grocery store cashiers will become the food police, telling parents what they can and cannot feed their families.”

Likewise, the snack industry trade association, anti-hunger groups and food and beverage industry organizations warned of potential consequences.

“Managing a SNAP-eligible food list would be an unending task that would have to be staffed and maintained, and communicated to retailers, customers, and manufacturers on a real-time basis,” they wrote to congressional leaders earlier this month.

“USDA has rejected state requests across various administrations to pilot restrictions of specific types of foods within SNAP due to the complexity and costs it would add to the program,” the letter continued.

USDA dietary guidelines say nutrient-dense foods and beverages “provide vitamins, minerals, and other health-promoting components and have little added sugars, saturated fat, and sodium. Vegetables, fruits, whole grains, seafood, eggs, beans, peas, and lentils, unsalted nuts and seeds, fat-free and low-fat dairy products, and lean meats and poultry—when prepared with no or little added sugars, saturated fat, and sodium—are nutrient-dense foods.”

Not everyone opposes the concept of the pilot program. Two former USDA secretaries said at the National WIC Association’s policy conference on Tuesday that the food stamp program should focus more on nutrition.

“SNAP can do a better job of giving people choices and education which are focused on better quality, higher nutrients, more vitamins, to fight the diseases … obesity, cardiovascular diseases and others,” said Dan Glickman, who served as agriculture secretary during the Clinton administration, noting that a pilot program should not be too onerous on recipients nor demonize them.

The food stamp program should be structured more like WIC, said Ann Veneman, the agriculture secretary during the George W. Bush administration. The latter program is much more restrictive, limiting eligible foods to milk, infant formula, whole grain bread, fruits, vegetables, peanut butter and eggs, among other items.

“If you could make the SNAP program look more like the WIC program, we could probably have better health outcomes and less money being spent on health care in this country,” she said.

Time is running out

Advocates are warning that states could have to turn people away as soon as March if Congress doesn’t provide additional funding shortly. The impact would be magnified because the estimated $1 billion shortfall will have to be absorbed in the remaining months of the fiscal year, which ends September 30.

That gap is equivalent to 1.5 months of benefits for all recipients or the cost of six months of benefits for pregnant women and infants, the USDA said in January. The agency estimates that 810,000 people apply for WIC services each month, including those who are new to the program and those renewing their benefits.

Some 6.6 million people received WIC benefits in November, the latest data available. That’s up from nearly 6.4 million people a year earlier, but down from more than 6.7 million people in June. Nearly 40% of infants participate in WIC, but only about 50% of eligible Americans are enrolled.

If Congress continues the current funding level for the rest of the fiscal year, about 2 million eligible pregnant women, new moms and young children could be turned away, according to the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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