Press Releases

Washington, DC – 53 House Members have signed onto a letter sponsored by Congresswoman Moore and Congressman Jim McGovern to the FY 2012 Agriculture Appropriations Conferees urging them to adequately fund the WIC program to ensure much needed continued food assistance for thousands of low-income and at-risk women and young children. The letter is still open for signatures.

Signatories include Rep. Moore, House Hunger Caucus Co-Chair McGovern, and Reps. Baca, Berman, Blumenauer, Brady, Butterfield, Capps, Christensen, Chu, Cicilline, Y. Clarke, H. Clarke, Cleaver, Cohen, Conyers, Critz, D. Davis, DeFazio, Doyle, Ellison, Grijalva, Gutiérrez, Hastings, Hinchey, Holt, Jackson Jr., H. Johnson, Kucinich, B. Lee, Maloney, Matsui, McDermott, Meeks, Norton, Pascrell, Payne, Pingree, Rangel, Reyes, Richardson, Rothman, Roybal-Allard, Rush, Sablan, Schakowsky, Sewell, Slaughter, Stark, Sutton, Thompson, Towns, and Wilson.

The letter reads as follows:

November XX, 2011

Dear Conferees,

As you begin to conference on the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies FY 2012 Appropriations bill, we respectfully request your leadership in providing adequate funding for the WIC program.

As you know, nationally WIC serves roughly 9 million mothers and young children.  The program provides nutritious foods, counseling on healthy eating, and health care referrals to low-income pregnant and postpartum women, infants, and children under age 5 who are at nutritional risk.  WIC prenatal care benefits reduce the rate of low birth-weight babies by 25% and very low birth-weight babies by 44%. More importantly, for every dollar spent on a pregnant woman on WIC, up to $4.21 is saved in Medicaid for her and her newborn baby because WIC reduces the risk for preterm birth and low-birth-weight babies by 25% and 44%, respectively.

Despite the WIC program’s cost-effectiveness and the undeniable benefits that the program provides to mothers and young children, the program is currently facing impending funding challenges.  The $733 million cut to the WIC program included in the House-passed FY 2012 Agriculture Appropriations bill would result in funding levels too low and, coupled with rapidly rising food prices, the loss of benefits for hundreds of thousands of eligible low-income women and young children next year.  While we believe the Senate-passed FY 2012 WIC funding level of $6.582 billion ($581 million above the House level) is a good starting point, we believe the uncertainty of future food price estimates warrant an even higher funding level that ensures that we are not hindering the WIC program’s ability to serve. 

Under the guise of deficit reduction, the House-passed bill puts the ability of thousands of eligible low-income women and children to put food on the table at risk.  The fact is that WIC provides significant return on investment and is itself a deficit reduction strategy – yielding significant long-term healthcare cost savings through improving nutrition, birth outcomes, breastfeeding rates, and improved infant and young children’s growth and development.  With 46.2 million people currently living in poverty, including 16.2 million children, we must continue to find ways to strengthen the already fledgling safety net, not weaken it.
We urge you to push for clean and adequate funding for the WIC program and to reject any additional cuts or changes to the program.  Thank you for your consideration of this request.