{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://pettersen.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=417", "Rep. Pettersen Leads Colorado Democratic Delegation in Urging Congressional Leadership to Fund WIC Ahead of Potential Government Shutdown", "2023-10-02", "2023", "2023-10", "Democrat", "House", "CO", "Brittany Pettersen", "P000620", "pettersen.house.gov", "pettersen", "https://pettersen.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx?DocumentTypeID=27", "scraper", "WASHINGTON\u2014Today, U.S. Representative Brittany Pettersen (CO-07) led the Colorado Democratic House Delegation in a letter to Senate and House leadership, as well as leadership for the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, over concerns with the level of funding allocated to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). In the letter, they call for the inclusion of sufficient resources for WIC in any short-term Continuing Resolution introduced to avert a government shutdown. Additionally, they outline the need to fully fund WIC in both the House and Senate Agriculture Appropriations bills to sustain the program long-term and prevent participants from being removed from their benefits.\n\nThe WIC program is facing a rapidly-approaching funding cliff in Colorado and across the country. The current proposed Agriculture Appropriations bills in both chambers would result in thousands of eligible Coloradans being turned away from WIC.\n\n\u201cFor nearly 50 years, since 1974, WIC has successfully invested in our nation's most vulnerable constituents, reducing hunger, improving diet quality, and preventing disease,\u201d wrote the members. They continued, \u201cCutting funding for the program would be a surefire way to harm those most in need during a nutritionally vulnerable period of their lives. This is especially dire given rapidly growing WIC enrollment, combined with historically high food prices.\u201d\n\n\u201cCongresswoman Pettersen\u2019s steadfast support for WIC exemplifies her dedication to the health and wellbeing of Coloradans,\u201d shared Greta Allen, Policy Manager for the Colorado Blueprint to End Hunger. \u201cOur statewide network of community members and advocates is grateful for her leadership in urging full funding for a program that provides a lifeline for families through access to healthy foods, nutrition education, and breastfeeding support.\u201d\n\nSigners of the letter include Representatives Diana DeGette (CO-01), Joe Neguse (CO-02), Jason Crow (CO-06), and Yadira Caraveo (CO-08).\n\nThe full text of the letter can be found here and below.\n\nDear Leader Schumer, Minority Leader McConnell, Speaker McCarthy, Minority Leader Jeffries,\n\nChairwoman Murray, Vice Chair Collins, Chairman Granger, and Ranking Member DeLauro:\n\nWe write to you today to raise our profound concerns with the level of funding allocated to the Special\n\nSupplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and to demonstrate the risks\n\nthat Coloradans enrolled in the program face under the constraints of a looming fiscal year 2024 budget\n\ndeadline.\n\nFor nearly 50 years, since 1974, WIC has successfully invested in our nation's most vulnerable\n\nconstituents, reducing hunger, improving diet quality, and preventing disease. Today, for 89,761\n\nColoradans who receive these monthly benefits\u2014women who are pregnant, breastfeeding, non-\n\nbreastfeeding postpartum, as well as infants, toddlers, and children up to age 5\u2014WIC serves as a\n\nfoundational resource, an unfailing lifeline.\n\nAs Members representing the great State of Colorado, we know that WIC works:\n\n\u27a2 WIC participants are four times more likely to be food secure than eligible non-participants;\n\n\u27a2 Eligible women who participate in WIC give birth to healthier babies who are more likely to\n\nsurvive infancy;\n\n\u27a2 For every dollar invested, WIC returns at least $2.48 in medical, education, and\n\nproductivity savings;\n\n\u27a2 Nationally, WIC serves nearly half of all infants born in the United States each year;\n\n\u27a2 From January 2023 to August 2023, Colorado WIC program benefits brought $13,127,104 to\n\nColorado grocery stores with the fruit and vegetable Cash Value Benefit (CVB) purchases\n\nalone6 and $48,457,294 to grocery stores with all WIC program food benefit purchases during\n\nthat same time.\n\n\u27a2 The CVB for fruits and vegetables is the highest-redeemed food category for Colorado WIC\n\nfamilies, supporting our producers and nutrition for eligible WIC recipients;\n\nIn addition to delivering results, WIC gives back to our constituents and to our economy, investing in\n\nmothers and young children in Colorado and across the country, ensuring they can thrive without the risk\n\nof food and nutrition insecurity. Furthermore, participation is growing: WIC serves nearly 90,000\n\nColoradans and numbers are steadily increasing. Just over a year ago, in August 2022, 80,262 Coloradans\n\nwere enrolled in the program; by July 2023, that number had climbed to 88,036.8 Increased engagement\n\namong eligible participants happens when federal programs deliver real value\u2014in the case of WIC, it's\n\nmeaningful nutrition support and proven long-term health and economic outcomes for Americans.\n\nCurrent WIC funding levels in both the Senate and House Appropriations bills are insufficient. In\n\nColorado, under the Senate Agriculture Appropriations, set at the President\u2019s Budget Request (PBR) at\n\n$6.3 billion, a projected 7,500 Coloradans could be turned away from WIC; up to 66,000 eligible persons\n\nin our great State could potentially be harmed by the funding currently allocated in both chambers.9 The\n\ncurrent House Agriculture, Rural Development and Food and Drug Administration Appropriations bill\n\nprovides staggeringly low funding levels for WIC, currently appropriating $5.5 billion for the program \u2013\n\n$185 million below fiscal year 2023 levels, despite increased participation. At these stripped funding\n\nlevels, Congress would fail to hold to the longstanding bipartisan agreement to fund WIC. We risk the\n\nvery real possibility that States will turn people away or, for the first time since the 1990s, waitlist eligible\n\nparticipants, an otherwise unthinkable scenario in the half century of this heretofore successful programs.\n\nThis letter describes the funding cliff that the WIC program faces in Colorado, yet the disastrous\n\nimplications of this shortfall are emblematic of what will be felt across the nation if WIC isn\u2019t provided\n\nwith needed Congressional support. Cutting funding for the program would be a surefire way to harm\n\nthose most in need during a nutritionally vulnerable period of their lives. This is especially dire given\n\nrapidly growing WIC enrollment, combined with historically high food prices.\n\nIt is imperative that Congress fully fund WIC at a level that will service projected caseloads and avoid\n\ncuts to benefits, prevent waitlisting of eligible WIC applicants, and protect the fruit and vegetable\n\nbenefits. We implore you to include sufficient resources in a short-term Continuing Resolution, and we\n\ncall on Congress to fully fund WIC for fiscal year 2024 to sustain current benefits and increasing\n\nparticipation.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T00:49:26Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://pettersen.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=417"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6071400605142117, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}