WIC Becomes a Political Football in Shutdown

During a federal government shutdown, it's standard practice for each political party to blame the other for funding potentially running out for popular programs. One political football this time: WIC, a federal program that provides food aid and other services to nearly 7 million low-income women and young children.

At an Oct. 9 Cabinet meeting, Vice President JD Vance said, "There’s a low-income food program, the WIC program, that my mom actually used when I was a baby. That program is about to be underfunded and it’s about to get cut off because Chuck Schumer won’t open the government,” referring to the Senate Democratic leader.

Meanwhile, the same day, Democratic Reps. Sarah McBride of Delaware and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts took to Facebook to blame Republicans. “Funding for WIC is running out because of the government shutdown. American women and children will lose food assistance as a direct result of Republicans’ partisan policies,” McBride wrote.

As Staff Writer D'Angelo Gore writes, U.S. residents are divided on which political party deserves blame for the government being partially shut down, but politicians on both sides are right that the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC, will remain in jeopardy the longer the shutdown continues. The shutdown began on Oct. 1. 

WIC provides healthy food, breastfeeding support and nutritional services to eligible low-income pregnant, breastfeeding and postpartum women, as well as children under 5 years old who are at nutritional risk. Without more federal financing, state governments would have to decide whether they could use state funds to finance the program, and then get federal reimbursement when the government opens. 

But on Oct. 7, the White House proposed tapping unused revenue from tariffs to keep WIC running this month. 

WIC historically has been largely unaffected during past shutdowns, but the situation is more challenging this year. It's the beginning of a fiscal year, and Congress hasn't appropriated any funds for fiscal 2026. 

See D'Angelo's full story for more: "WIC Becomes a Political Football in Shutdown."

The U.S. edition of El País, a Spanish-language newspaper, and the broadcast network Univision both republished the Spanish translation of our article on how the Trump administration’s actions on immigration have mirrored Project 2025. The story was part of a five-part series on the conservative playbook, which was a main issue in the 2024 election.  

El País ran the story on Oct. 10, while Univision posted the rather lengthy piece in two parts over that weekend. The story lays out how President Donald Trump has taken many actions that line up with Project 2025 proposals and how in some cases, Trump has gone further or diverged from the document.

We provide Spanish translations for many of our articles, and we have partnerships with several Spanish-language media outlets that republish our work. Interested in republishing our work? Contact us. Former Staff Writer Catalina Jaramillo works part-time on our Spanish translations and partnerships.

Wrapping Up

Here's what else we've got for you this week:

• Q&A on the 2025-2026 COVID-19 Vaccines
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• Los números finales de Biden
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