Why WIC Should Not be Included in Deficit Reduction Talks

Has the quest to solve the nation’s deficit problem caused some in Congress to lose common sense? It would seem that way, when the nation’s food and nutrition programs – WIC, SNAP, and School Lunch, among them – are threatened with potentially huge budget cuts affecting the lives of millions of vulnerable, struggling American families as Congress wrestles with deficit reduction recommendations.

Take WIC, for example – the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children serving nearly 9 million mothers and young children (to age 5) monthly, including 53% of all infants and 25% of all pregnant women in the U.S. – with an over 35 year proven track record of improving healthy pregnancies, birth outcomes, reducing infant mortality, preparing kids ready to learn, and with huge savings to taxpayers. In California, nearly 1.4 million mothers and young children (to age 5) are served monthly.  70% of infants born in Los Angeles County receive WIC benefits and over 500,000 Los Angeles participants are served by the WIC Program.

Numerous studies have shown that pregnant women who participate in WIC have longer pregnancies leading to fewer premature births; fewer low and very low birth-weight babies; experience fewer fetal and infant deaths; seek prenatal care earlier in pregnancy; and consume more of such key nutrients as iron, protein, calcium, and Vitamins A and C. Investing in WIC for the sake of healthy babies and to achieve health care savings in this tight economy makes sound economic and deficit reduction sense.

Five successive Administrations have cited WIC as an effective, cost-efficient federal program. WIC achieved the highest rating possible among federal programs from the US Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB’s) Program Assessment Rating Tool in 2006 and 2010 as a result of impacts on key health outcomes, efficient use of program funds, and success in achieving long-term performance goals. Why would anyone in Congress consider cutting such a successful preventative, public health nutrition program?

WIC is a short-term preventative public health nutrition program designed to influence lifetime nutrition and health behaviors in a targeted, high-risk population. WIC works intensively with mothers and young children to help them form healthy eating habits and engage in appropriate physical activity. The foods included in the WIC food packages are specifically selected for their nutritional value to supplement the nutrients found lacking in the diets of low-income populations. Research demonstrates that the food and nutrition education components of WIC work synergistically to achieve successful interventions.

With the nation’s obesity rates continuing to rise, and two-thirds of adults and nearly one-third of children and teens currently obese or overweight and at increased risk for over 20 major diseases, including type 2 diabetes and heart disease, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, now is not the time for Congress to consider funding cuts to WIC.

WIC is both efficiently run – with documented low administrative costs averaging 9.09% nationally – and entrepreneurial – funding approximately 25% of its food costs through cost-containment initiatives rather than federal resources.  Nationwide, over $6.25 billion worth of WIC food benefits was spent in local economies last year, but only $4.56 billion of those dollars were provided by federal taxpayers.

Should Congress fail to successfully meet its agreed upon deficit reduction target of $1.5 trillion, WIC could be hit with dramatic funding cuts resulting in more than 75,000 Southern California mothers and young children, in Los Angeles County, being cut off from critical WIC nutrition services.  Moreover, deficit reduction targets for future years could see further dramatic cuts to WIC resulting in a negative impact on long term health care costs which is neither affordable nor acceptable to the local population.

And if that argument alone is not sufficiently compelling, with nearly one in four California children (22%) living in poverty nationwide as well as in California.  Indeed over 46 million Americans living in poverty – an increase of 2.6 million people since 2009 – the highest number on record, according to the 2010 U.S. Census, and with sustained high rates of unemployment and marginal employment, Americans in need should not be penalized for their circumstances or forced to make even more difficult choices because Congress forces cuts to programs for low-income families. These are our neighbors. And there is not a faith or humanist tradition in the land that does not call us to care for the least amongst us, feed the hungry, care for the sick, and work for justice.

Deficit reduction begins with sound investments in the health and well-being of our nation’s families and communities, not with slashing vital food and nutrition programs, like WIC, that contribute to long-term health savings, workforce productivity, the nation’s competitiveness in a global economy, and national security.