Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack warned that a partial federal government shutdown would deprive low-income pregnant women, infants and children under age 5 of access to nutritional foods, send more than 50,000 Agriculture Department workers home and limit farmers’ access to marketing assistance loans.
“The reality is that when there is a shutdown we’re looking at a significant disruption of the lives of millions of Americans. I’m here to suggest that there are consequences to real people in a real way when there is a shutdown,” Vilsack said Monday during a White House press briefing.
Vilsack said when the Women, Infants and Children special nutritional program runs out of money, 6.7 million low-income pregnant or postpartum women, infants and children would be left in limbo. He told White House reporters that a WIC contingency fund could keep the federal program going for a day or two after a shutdown starts. Some states that have unspent funds could continue their programs a little longer.
