As the United States entered the second week of a partial government shutdown in October 2025, millions of low-income women and children found themselves at the center of a high-stakes political standoff. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children—better known as WIC—serves nearly seven million recipients nationwide, providing healthy food, nutritional counseling, and breastfeeding support. But with Congress deadlocked over the federal budget, WIC’s future suddenly hung in the balance, igniting a fierce blame game between Republicans and Democrats.
According to FactCheck.org, the standoff began after most federal operations ground to a halt on September 30, 2025. Lawmakers failed to pass funding for the 2026 fiscal year, which kicked off on October 1. House Republicans, joined by one Democrat, had approved a continuing budget resolution to keep the government running through November 21, giving both sides time to hash out a longer-term deal. But Senate Democrats blocked the measure, holding out for a package that would also extend expiring subsidies for health insurance purchased through Affordable Care Act marketplaces and undo certain Medicaid changes enacted by Republicans earlier in the year.
The impasse left WIC in a precarious position. Unlike mandatory programs such as Social Security, which continue to pay out during a shutdown, WIC relies on discretionary funding appropriated by Congress and distributed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). As of May 2025, WIC was serving about 6.9 million people, with a price tag of $7.3 billion in fiscal year 2024 and $7.6 billion approved for the year that ended September 30, 2025. With no new federal money flowing, states were forced to dip into $150 million in federal contingency funds just to keep the program afloat.
As tempers flared in Washington, leaders from both parties took to the airwaves and social media to assign blame. At an October 9 Cabinet meeting, Vice President JD Vance pointed the finger squarely at Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, saying, “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.”
Democrats, meanwhile, were quick to fire back. Representative Sarah McBride of Delaware wrote on Facebook that “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.” Her colleague, Representative Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, echoed the sentiment: “WIC is a lifeline that helps new parents keep their babies fed. But thanks to Republicans’ government shutdown, WIC funds could run out in a matter of weeks.” She urged the GOP to “re-open the government NOW and stop playing with people’s lives.”
Amid the political crossfire, the Trump administration scrambled to find a stopgap solution. On October 7, the White House announced a plan to tap $300 million in unused tariff revenue—collected under the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1935—to keep WIC funded through the end of the month. As reported by FactCheck.org, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated, “The Trump White House will not allow impoverished mothers and their babies to go hungry because of the Democrats’ political games.” The USDA confirmed, “The department will utilize tariff revenue to fund WIC for the foreseeable future.”
This move was only possible because President Trump’s tariffs had dramatically boosted customs revenue. According to a Treasury Department report cited by The Washington Times, customs duties soared from $84 billion in 2024 to $202 billion in 2025—a staggering 142% increase. In total, tariffs generated an extra $118 billion for the federal government in the past year, helping to offset surging federal spending and slightly reduce the annual deficit.
Still, the underlying fiscal picture was far from rosy. The government wrapped up fiscal year 2025 with a $1.775 trillion deficit, a modest improvement over the previous year under President Biden but still well above sustainable levels. Spending ballooned by $275 billion to over $7 trillion, while revenue climbed by $317 billion to a record $5.235 trillion. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent expressed cautious optimism, predicting, “Strong private-sector-led growth alongside constrained federal spending means the deficit to GDP will take care of itself.” He projected that with continued restraint, the deficit-to-GDP ratio could drop to 3% by 2028.
Not everyone shared Bessent’s optimism. Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, warned, “While the deficit didn’t rise from last year, it didn’t fall either, and we continue to borrow far too much. We are on track to borrow nearly $2 trillion a year for the next decade. How can anyone think this is sustainable?”
For families relying on WIC, the numbers behind the political wrangling were anything but abstract. Nell Menefee-Libey, senior public policy manager for the National WIC Association, told FactCheck.org that this shutdown was particularly challenging for the program. “We’re at the beginning of a new fiscal year, so Congress has not yet appropriated any FY26 funds to support continued operations,” she explained. Participation in WIC has been rising, stretching already tight state budgets, and inflation means food dollars don’t go as far as they used to. In contrast, during previous shutdowns—such as the 35-day closure in 2018-2019—WIC was able to keep operating thanks to funding already in place.
Georgia Machell, president and CEO of the National WIC Association, welcomed the administration’s use of tariff revenue as a temporary fix, but cautioned that it was no substitute for a real budget. “There is no substitute for Congress doing its job,” she said in an October 7 statement. “WIC needs full-year funding, not just temporary lifelines. It’s imperative that leaders in Washington come together and act immediately to ensure that millions of families can continue to access the critical nutrition, care, and support they count on every day.”
House Democrats responded by proposing legislation to make WIC a mandatory federal program, shielding it from future shutdowns. This would put WIC on par with programs like Social Security, ensuring that families never again face the threat of losing essential food assistance due to political gridlock.
But with no agreement in sight, House Speaker Mike Johnson warned on October 13 that the nation was “barreling toward one of the longest shutdowns in American history” unless Democrats dropped their health care demands and passed a “clean, no-strings-attached budget to reopen the government and pay our federal workers.”
Meanwhile, the broader debate over federal finances raged on. Entitlement spending for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid rose by 8% in 2025, adding more than a quarter-trillion dollars to the government’s tab. Interest payments on the national debt hit $1.2 trillion—second only to Social Security in the federal budget. Military spending climbed 5% to $868 billion, while spending at the Environmental Protection Agency more than doubled as the Biden administration rushed to secure funding before Trump’s return to the White House. The Trump administration has since moved to freeze and claw back those EPA funds, though for now, they remain on the books as spent.
For now, WIC recipients can breathe a small sigh of relief, knowing that tariff revenue will keep the program running through October. But with the shutdown dragging on and no permanent fix in sight, millions of families remain caught in the crossfire of Washington’s budget battles, anxiously awaiting a solution that will ensure their children don’t go hungry.
