For over 50 years, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) has bolstered the nutrition, health, and economic stability of women and children. For decades, Congress and the Administration have collaborated to ensure that sufficient funding is available to serve all eligible families. However, President Trump’s FY26 budget plan seeks to decrease WIC funding by nearly $300 million, slashing benefits for breastfeeding mothers from $52 to just $13 and bringing the program’s Fruits and Vegetables Benefit or Cash Value Benefit (CVB) down to its lowest levels since 2021. Cuts to WIC funding would harm public health and cost the federal government more money in the long run.
WIC Provides Vital Supports For Low-Income Women & Children
First established in 1975 to tackle rising hunger and malnutrition rates in the U.S., WIC provides low-income mothers, infants, and children up to age 5 years with supplemental food, nutrition education, health care referrals, and breastfeeding support. These services are crucial to the health and well-being of 6.8 million women and children. WIC improves birth and child development outcomes and infant feeding practices. Research has shown that the program significantly reduces infant and maternal deaths and decreases household food insecurity, allowing participants to purchase more nutritious foods. In 2022, the program kept around 100,000 children out of poverty.
WIC Cuts Would Worsen Health Outcomes & Widen Disparities
Cuts to the WIC program would lead to poorer health outcomes and exacerbate racial and geographic inequities. WIC cuts would undermine the health of all families participating in the program, and the consequences would fall hardest on people already facing systemic barriers to health and nutrition. For example, Black infants experience mortality rates twice as high as white infants, and WIC benefits have been shown to help narrow this gap. In 2009, WIC reduced the difference between black and white infant mortality rates by ten percentage points.
The proposed decrease in monthly child CVB benefits–from $26 to $10–could hit children in rural areas especially hard. In 2017, 1 in 5 rural households with children experienced food insecurity, compared to 1 in 7 urban households with children. Geographic isolation, limited access to grocery stores, and fewer health care and nutrition resources already present challenges to staying healthy. Cuts to the WIC program would exacerbate existing geographic inequities and make it harder for rural participants to feed their families.
Cuts To WIC Could Increase Federal Government Spending
WIC funding cuts are likely to drive up the cost of health care and ultimately increase federal government spending. For each $1 spent on WIC, the federal government saves $2.48 in medical, educational, and productivity costs. WIC has also been shown to reduce Medicaid postpartum health care spending by nearly 50 percent in the first 60 days after birth. Slashing program funding would likely produce a corresponding rise in federal Medicaid postpartum health care costs.
A robust WIC program can help keep more than 200,000 people out of poverty in a single year. If adopted, this administration’s unprecedented proposal to decrease WIC spending will deepen food insecurity for women and children and have negative ripple effects in communities across the country.