WH to Dems: Shutdown Threatens WIC Benefits for Mothers, Children

The pain of a government shutdown won’t just be political: Millions of low-income women and children could be left hungry as soon as next week if congressional Democrats and the White House do not come to a deal.

The WIC program and why it is vulnerable

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children will soon run out of funding. If they don’t cut a deal to keep the government open, a senior White House official told RealClearPolitics, “Democrats would be turning their back on WIC recipients.”

Called WIC for short, the program provides vouchers for healthy food to low-income pregnant and postpartum women, their infants, and young children. The $7 billion program is funded entirely by the federal government, but that money is expected to be depleted on Oct.1. New beneficiaries will be unable to enroll, and current WIC beneficiaries will be unable to have their cards reloaded.

A senior administration official now says:

The program would run out of money in October, and women and children could no longer receive benefits. The White House and Republicans in the House-passed CR added $600 million so there will be no loss of benefits – clearly Democrats are ok with women and children losing WIC benefits.

The program has been increasingly strained in recent years as enrollment increased and as the cost of food continues to rise. A small contingency fund does exist, about $150 million, but that is not enough money to provide food assistance for the more than 6.7 million that rely on the program. The administration has searched for additional money to reprogram but come up short.

“There’s no more quarters in the cushions,” the official said. “It’d get us maybe another day.”

House Republicans advanced a continuing resolution to keep the government open until Nov. 20. Other than additional money for new security for members of the executive and judicial branches, and programmatic change to free up $1 billion for the D.C. city government, it does not make big new spending changes.

Democrats balk

Under pressure from their base and led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, congressional Democrats have balked at that deal and tried to open negotiations with the White House. They are seeking concessions on health care spending in exchange for their support. Late Tuesday, President Trump abruptly canceled a meeting with Democratic leadership.

“After reviewing the details of the unserious and ridiculous demands being made by the Minority Radical Left Democrats in return for their Votes to keep our thriving Country open, I have decided that no meeting with their Congressional Leaders could possibly be productive,” he wrote on Truth Social.

The blame game commenced shortly thereafter, with Schumer blasting the White House for refusing to talk. “Donald Trump is causing the shutdown,” Schumer said at a Tuesday press conference. “This is a Trump shutdown, and he is barreling right toward it right now, and he knows he is going to be blamed for the shut down.”

The White House then quickly turned up the pressure, threatening to use a government shutdown as an opportunity to further remake the federal workforce. If the lights go off, Russ Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, warned that thousands of government employees could permanently lose their jobs. On the home front, the White House now warns, millions of kitchen tables could begin to go bare.

This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.