Washington – Washington (AP) – a Food aid program This helps more than 6 million low -income mothers and young children will run out of federal funds within two weeks. The government closing Experts say that the countries that compel countries to use their own money to keep them standing on their feet or risk closing them.
The additional feeding program of $ 8 billion in women, infants and children, also known as WIC, provides vouchers to purchase infant format as well as Fresh fruits and vegetablesStrong fat and other healthy nutrients that are often far from the financial areas of low -income families.
Closing, which It started WednesdayIt coincided with the beginning of a new fiscal year, and this means programs like WicThat depends on the annual injection of the federal government, is almost money. Currently, the program is kept standing on its feet through an emergency fund worth $ 150 million, but experts say it may dry quickly.
After that, the states can intervene to pay for the program and seek payment when the budget passes at the end, but not all countries say they can bear it.
“We are satisfied for a week to two weeks,” said Ali Hard, director of politics at WIC. “Then, we are very worried.”
Taylor Muir, a mother of three children recently separated from her husband, has received WIC since his first birth nine years ago. She said that the program allowed her to feed her nutritional nutrient children, which tends to be more stable than thick calories and treatment. She also provided guidance when she struggled for breastfeeding and advised her about how to deal with the eating stage, difficult to please her son.
“There were times when I sat in my home and really wondered how I would have feed my family,” said Muir, who works at the LGBT LIFE center in Virginia Beach. Virginia. “I went to the store with my WIC card … Get the rice, got avocado, got the eggs, and gave a balanced meal that was already good.”
The closure came as democrats and the Republicans Failure to pass a new spending plan. Democratic lawmakers want to extend the tax credits that make health care cheaper for millions of Americans, and they want the opposite Deep discounts to Medicaid Which passed earlier this year. They refused to sign any spending plan that did not include those provisions.
Parliament Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican of Louisiana, blamed the Democrats for the closure and described them as hypocrisy because the failure to finance the federal government of many health programs.
The WIC program, which has long been supported by the two parties, helps those pregnant, mothers and children under the age of five. Research has been linked to low infant mortality, healthy birth weights, high fortification rates and the best academic results for children who participate. Nearly half of those qualified do not record, often because they believe they are not qualified or cannot reach the WIC office.
Some Republican lawmakers want to reduce WIC, which aims to eliminate Project 2025The influential policy plan by the man who is now the head of the budget of President Donald Trump. Requesting Trump’s budget and the Republican -backed spending plan in the House of Representatives will not finance the entire program. They also want to reduce financing for families to buy fresh fruits and vegetables.
In the event of an extended closure, several states sought to reassure WIC recipients that they will continue to receive benefits. Connecticut Ned Lamont, a democratic, said the state would capture the tab if the federal financing was run out.
“I want to know these young families, these mothers, that your WIC card will remain good in the foreseeable future,” Lamont said. “We make sure that the government does not take it away from you.”
But in Washington state, where a third of the children receives the advantages of WIC, officials say they do not have money to keep the program open.
“Washington Week may be able to maintain the advantages for a week to two weeks before the federation closes would force the full closure of the program,” said Reichill Sims, a spokesman for the state. “If the closure lasts longer than that, DOH does not have the ability to postpone WIC financing.”
Muir, the mother, warned of Virginia Beach, that ending the program may be catastrophic for the recipient.
She said, “There will be children who exceed the feed. There will be pregnant women who exceed meals so that they can feed their young children.” “This means that people will not have a balanced and healthy diet.”
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The Associated Press Susan Hi in Hartford, Kon, contributed to this report.
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