DENVER — Colorado's Joint Budget Committee approved $7.5 million in funding to keep the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) afloat in case of a federal government shutdown.
ABC News reports that if the shutdown lasts longer than a week, WIC may begin to run out of funding. More than 100,000 low-income Coloradans depend on WIC benefits each month.
"Pretty terrible, thinking about the impact this will have on the lives of Coloradans is pretty horrifying," State Sen. Jeff Bridges, chairman of the state's Joint Budget Committee (JBC), told Denver7 Tuesday.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis asked the JBC to find money to help fund WIC in the event of a federal government shutdown. The budget committee approved $7.5 million to help bridge any funding problems that arise.
"We have very limited capacity at the state level to step in and fill the role that's being played by the feds," Bridges said. "We have fairly limited legal authority to do that, but we are doing everything we can to lessen the impact as much a possible on the people of Colorado, on what is just absurd, what is happening at the federal level."
How much would WIC lose in the shutdown? Bridges said it depends on how long the shutdown lasts.
Bridges said he is optimistic that the federal government will reimburse the $7.5 million when the government gets going again.
Nationwide, more than 6 million women and children rely on WIC each month for $7.2 billion annually.
