J. Hill

If cutting funding for a program that supports women and infants is your idea of a good time, Congressman French Hill is your man.

Hill, Arkansas’ 2nd District Republican congressman, along with his three fellow congressmen representing The Natural State, voted last week to approve an appropriations bill that would cut $200 million for WIC, a federal program to help low-income pregnant women and women with young children afford healthy food. Most of those cuts – $141 million – would reduce the fruit and vegetable benefit for 5.4 million toddlers, preschoolers and pregnant and postpartum individuals, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The vote in Congress was mostly along party lines, with Republicans lending their support. The bill now heads to the Senate.

Despite multiple attempts – three phone calls and an email – we were unsuccessful in getting a comment from Hill on his vote.

Hill’s Democratic opponent, Chris Jones, however, had much to say on the subject, with his first comment directed squarely at the six-term Republican.

“If French Hill, the most powerful banker in Congress, can’t help make sure Arkansas kids have enough to eat, then he’s using his power for the wrong priorities,” Jones said via email. “I’ve seen firsthand what happens when families lose access to food assistance. Both as someone who grew up with the stress, embarrassment, and relief of food stamps, and now as a member of the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance Board. Hunger doesn’t disappear when Washington cuts a program. It shows up at food banks, church pantries, and kitchen tables across Arkansas.”

The currently proposed cuts to the WIC program were pushed by the Trump Administration, which tried and failed last year to make the same cuts. They come at a time when gas and grocery prices are making life especially difficult for already struggling families.

“That’s why these proposed cuts to WIC are so troubling,” Jones said. “These cuts aren’t abstract. They could affect thousands of women, infants, and young children right here in Arkansas’s Second Congressional District. Behind every number is a family trying to make ends meet and a child who deserves a healthy start in life.”

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said that in Arkansas, $1.2 million would be cut from the program, affecting 48,000 individuals.

“Communities across Arkansas, including places like Searcy, are already coming together to address growing food insecurity because they see the need firsthand,” Jones said. “They understand something Washington too often forgets: hunger does not disappear when Congress cuts a program. Feeding children is not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue. It’s an Arkansas issue.”

The reduction to the WIC program is estimated to cost more than it saves.

“WIC funding cuts are likely to drive up the cost of health care and ultimately increase federal government spending,” according to the Center on Poverty and Inequality at the Georgetown University Law Center. “For each $1 spent on WIC, the federal government saves $2.48 in medical, educational, and productivity costs. WIC has also been shown to reduce Medicaid postpartum health care spending by nearly 50 percent in the first 60 days after birth. Slashing program funding would likely produce a corresponding rise in federal Medicaid postpartum health care costs.”

The center also said a “robust WIC program can help keep more than 200,000 people out of poverty in a single year. If adopted, this administration’s unprecedented proposal to decrease WIC spending will deepen food insecurity for women and children and have negative ripple effects in communities across the country.”

Jones quoted slain rapper Tupac Shakur on our country’s priorities.

“He said, ‘They got money for wars, but can’t feed the poor,’” Jones said. “Looking at these cuts, that line feels as relevant today as ever. Washington can always seem to find money for its priorities, but when it comes to helping mothers and children buy healthy food, suddenly we’re told we need to cut back.”

Jones said his church upbringing taught him that “feeding hungry people isn’t optional.”

“Scripture teaches us to care for the least of these,” he said. “When children are hungry, our responsibility is to help, not turn away. This is exactly why I’ve been talking about Affordability and Accountability for All. Families deserve to be able to afford groceries, and elected officials should be accountable for the choices they make.”

Jones then questioned Hill’s own priorities.

“French Hill has power. The question is who he uses it for,” Jones said. “When Arkansas communities needed infrastructure, Hill voted the wrong way. When Arkansas families needed lower health care costs, Hill voted the wrong way. And now, when pregnant women, babies, and young children need food support, Hill is going the wrong way again.

“Arkansas families are looking for leadership that puts people ahead of politics and priorities that put children ahead of special interests. On this issue, Congress has a choice. French Hill has made his. I would make a different one.”

The head of the National WIC Association, Georgia Machell, said on the group’s website the cuts are short-sighted.

“These cuts break with the Trump Administration’s support for WIC during the 2025 government shutdown and directly contradict the administration’s stated goal to ‘Make America Healthy Again,’” Machell said. “WIC is a proven public health investment during the most critical developmental stages: pregnancy, infancy, and early childhood. By slashing the fruit and vegetable benefits and not ensuring sufficient program funding, this administration is taking healthy foods away from children and mothers most at risk for nutritional deficiencies. The proposed reductions would roll back WIC’s fruit and vegetable benefits to levels not seen since before the previous science-based increase in 2021, undermining a proven investment in child and maternal health. This plan is short-sighted, hypocritical, and … will harm American families.”

Arkansas ranks near the bottom in its high percentage of maternal mortality. Arkansas is also the only state in the nation that has not extended postpartum Medicaid coverage from 60 days to a full year. And the state’s participation in WIC is 35% of those eligible, well below the national average of 51%. In an Arkansas Times story, Sylvia Blain, head of the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance, said one of the problems with the way the federal WIC program has historically operated is that it is simply too hard for women to use because of its burdensome requirements to go to health departments in person.

That requirement was not addressed in the Republicans’ appropriation bill.

The Republican majority’s bill also fails to make virtual service options, including phone appointments, available permanently, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.