Published August 26, 2025

On July 4th, President Trump signed the budget reconciliation package, H.R. 1, into law. This law makes sweeping cuts to nutrition and health care support for millions of people to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. 

SNAP and Medicaid Cuts Will Hurt WIC Families 

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the cuts to Medicaid will cause 10 million people to lose their health insurance by 2034. Cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will put more than 7 million people at risk of losing their SNAP benefits. Additionally, as states, with already tight budgets, take on additional costs of SNAP to comply with the new budget reconciliation law, the number of people impacted will grow. 

While the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) was not directly impacted by H.R. 1, the ripple effect of these cuts will reach far and wide. WIC is a time-limited program that provides pregnant and postpartum individuals essential nutrition support, education, and services to ensure babies have a strong start in life. Without the added support of programs like SNAP and Medicaid, the health and well-being of our nation’s children are at risk. 

According to a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report, 80.4 percent of WIC participants reported participating in SNAP, Medicaid, and/or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) in 2022.  Together, these programs can provide stability, or at least a foundation, for households to grow and thrive. Take away one of these programs and parents will have more impossible choices to make — between paying for food and rent, food and health care, and/or food and other basic needs.  

Adjunctive Eligibility 

The link between these programs is made even stronger through a mechanism known as adjunctive eligibility. This allows families to meet the income requirement for WIC through participation in SNAP, Medicaid, or TANF. This means that if a household meets the income requirements for one of those programs, they do not have to again provide proof of income when applying for WIC, helping to streamline the process for both families and the WIC agency. 

Impact on WIC  Families 

The National WIC Association estimates that based on the SNAP cuts alone, hundreds of thousands of infants and young children are at risk of losing their automatic eligibility for WIC. The impact would likely be even greater with Medicaid and TANF cuts taken into account.   

Currently, only about half of those eligible for WIC participate in the program. This large participation gap will only be exacerbated when applying for the program becomes even more difficult. WIC agencies will also have to separately verify income for additional families, which will increase work for those offices and could potentially delay benefits for families.  

The impact will mean more work for the states and a more burdensome application process for families that will only lead to eligible families falling through the cracks and not receiving the nutrition they need. 

Mitigation of the Harm 

States will now have to figure out how to best support this additional work for their WIC staff at a time when many WIC clinics are already facing capacity challenges. Advocates should remind their state of allowable flexibilities that could streamline processes, and in turn, could alleviate some of the harm. 

Program Flexibilities 

In 2023, USDA released a memo providing guidance on ways states could improve outreach and streamline certification for WIC. The goal of this was to reduce the burden on WIC staff and participants while ensuring program integrity. Some of the items included were requirements for the state, for example, checking if an applicant was adjunctively eligible before performing a traditional income screening, and others were recommendations. Some of those recommendations that the state can implement include: 

  • permitting electronic documentation from a mobile device or other electronic source as proof for certification documentation requirements; 
  • allowing electronic documentation to be provided in person or sent to the clinic via secure electronic means; 
  • utilizing tools at their disposal to collect information and documents in advance of certification appointments to identify any missing items and streamline the certification process; 
  • allowing one type of documentation to serve as proof for multiple certification documentation requirements; and 
  • granting a temporary 30-day certification period, if an applicant can provide proof for two of the three required documents to determine eligibility (e.g., identity, residency, and income). 

MODERN WIC Act 

Additionally, without action from Congress, an important flexibility currently used by states will expire in September 2026. This allows WIC agencies to permit participants to be certified or recertified for WIC by phone or video appointments. The MODERN WIC Act would make this vital service option permanent. If this expires, WIC agencies and participants will need to return to fully in-person appointments, adding more work for staff and barriers for participants. You can take action to support this bill today.  

Focus on Program Pathways to Improve Access  

While program flexibilities will not mitigate all of the anticipated harm from these devastating SNAP and Medicaid cuts, advocates should push their states to consider what can make programs, including WIC, more accessible. With the deep cuts and changes to these critical nutrition and health resources, we must work to mitigate that harm wherever possible.