The House of Representatives has narrowly passed a Republican-led spending bill that would reduce food aid for millions of low-income women and children, highlighting divisions in Congress over nutrition programs as grocery costs remain elevated.
By a 213-210 vote on Thursday, lawmakers proved the fiscal 2027 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies propriations bill.
The measure aims to trim funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), which provides food assistance to pregnant women, new mothers and young children.
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Republicans argued that the program is sufficiently funded while Democrats say this will harm vulnerable Americans at a time when consumer costs are on the rise.
How Lawmakers Voted
The bill largely passed along party lines but drew crossover votes in both directions.
Four Democrats voted with Republicans to support the bill: Don Davis of North Carolina, Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, Adam Gray of California and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington.
At the same time, five Republicans broke ranks and opposed the measure—Robert P. Bresnahan, Jr. of Pennsylvania, Brian K. Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Tom McClintock of California and Gregory Steube of Florida.
Republican Representative Andy Harris of Maryland, chairman of the House propriations subcommittee on agriculture, said the $8 billion in remaining funding is sufficient to meet the needs of the program, citing data, he said, showed WIC participation had been declining this fiscal year, according to The Washington Post.
Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House propriations Committee, said that while working families struggle to feed their families, Republicans are cutting funding for fruit and vegetable vouchers for women, infants, and children, as reported by the website Common Dreams.
What The Bill Would Do
The legislation aims to reduce funding for WIC’s fruit and vegetable benefit, a key portion of the program that helps participants purchase fresh produce.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates the change would cut about $141 million from benefits used by roughly 5.4 million children, pregnant women and postpartum mothers enrolled in the program.
The proposal would also reduce the value of those benefits by around 10 percent.
What WIC provides—and Who Qualifies
WIC is a federally funded nutrition program run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that serves low-income pregnant and postpartum women, infants and children up to age five who are deemed at nutritional risk.
Participants receive a package of specific, proved foods—such as milk, eggs, cereal and infant formula—along with nutrition counseling, breastfeeding support and health referrals.
A key component is the cash value benefit, which provides a monthly allowance for fruits and vegetables. Under current levels, children typically receive about $26 per month, pregnant and postpartum women receive about $48 per month, and breastfeeding women receive about $52 per month.
Eligibility is generally limited to households earning up to 185 percent of the federal poverty level, or those already enrolled in programs such as Medicaid or SN.
What Hpens Next in Congress
The bill’s passage in the House is only the first step in the propriations process.

The St. George Greek Festival is returning to Bethesda, offering a weekend filled with authentic Greek food, music, dancing, and cultural traditions. Hosted by St. George Greek Orthodox Church, the annual event gives visitors a chance to experience Greek hospitality while learning more about the faith and heritage of the local community.
Festival organizers say guests can enjoy traditional cuisine, live entertainment, and family-friendly activities throughout the weekend. n spoke with a few of the festival’s coordinators about what attendees can expect and why the event has become a beloved tradition in the Washington area.

NEW YORK — Food, art and community are just some of the reasons people travel. Now, all three are at the heart of a new show travelers will want to put on their radar.
National Geogrhic is known for its “Best of the World” lists, and this year, they are getting a little help.
You may know him from “Queer Eye,” and Entertainment reporter Joelle Garguilo knew him even before that.
“We were cast on ‘Queer Eye,’ so this is right where you and I met,” Antoni Porowski said. “We were in this weird flux where it was like, do I go back to waiting tables and working at the gallery?”
That first season changed everything, and now Porowski is on a new quest with a new docuseries. “Nat Geo’s Best of the World With Antoni Porowski” takes viewers around the globe but goes far beyond typical city icons.
In the first episode, Porowski asks: What makes something the best?
“I very consciously wanted to ask that question and make sure it made it into the final cut, because one of the most intimidating titles is ‘Best of the World,'” he said. “It can mean something completely different to different people.”
For Porowski, the answer comes down to connection.
“The best for me, all of my core memories when I come back from a trip, are always the human stories,” he said. “It’s always the people that I meet. It’s the girl who’s been knitting a rug and will be for eight years at the Salon Mobilier in Paris, who’s a Swiftie, to the guy who’s running Big Ben, to chef Elena Reygadas in Mexico City, who traveled to London to become a Michelin-starred chef with all these accolades and then decided the tomatoes here aren’t as good as they are back home.”
He said those kinds of moments are what keep him excited for what comes next.
“Best of the World With Antoni Porowski” premieres Sunday on National Geogrhic and will stream the next day on Hulu and Disney+.
Disney is the parent company of this station.

Detached From Reality: This Economist Is Slamming The Trump Administration For This Ridiculous Claim They Made About American Spending Habits
Food prices are more than 30% higher today than they were right before the COVID-19 pandemic.
President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser displayed a rather brazen attempt to spin Americans’ struggles with affordability.
Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, made a dubious claim about rising costs during an pearance on Fox News Sunday ― namely, that the increased consumer spending of late is actually evidence of an optimistic public.
People are spending more on gas, but they’re also spending more on everything else, not just groceries, but restaurants and so on, Hassett said. And I think that’s a sign that you would see when people are optimistic about the future. But an economist who studies food prices and consumer behavior said the interpretation is deeply misleading ― and potentially damaging to public trust.
Those comments are very detached from reality, David L. Ortega, a food economist and professor at Michigan State University, told HuffPost. When we’re talking about things like food, groceries and gas, these are necessities. People have to eat. They need gas to get to work and move around. When we see more spending in those categories, it’s largely driven by higher prices ― not because people are optimistic about where we’re headed or where we currently are.
Hassett’s remarks echo those of his boss. Trump has also questioned Americans’ concerns about affordability, calling the cost-of-living crisis a hoax and shrugging off rising prices as peanuts.
But the data tells a different story. Food prices are 3.2% higher today than they were a year ago, Ortega noted, which has a real impact on people’s wallets. What is more concerning is that food prices are more than 30% higher today than they were right before the COVID-19 pandemic, Ortega said. In 2022, we saw the sharpest year-over-year increase in food prices in about 40 years.
Grocery costs surged faster in 2022 than any year since 1979 amid the Ukraine war, avian flu outbreak, supply chain disruptions and more challenges. What we’ve experienced over the past few years is certainly not within the normal balance of what we were looking at prior to the pandemic, Ortega said. And at this moment, food price inflation has moderated from those highs of 2022 when we were looking at double-digit increases, but we’re now seeing a resurgence in inflation. The month-over-month numbers for groceries, in particular this last month, was the fastest increase that we’ve seen since 2022.
Although cost increases since the pandemic have had multiple causes, Ortega noted that the latest spikes seem to be largely the result of Trump administration policies and a new wave of global uncertainty.
A lot of this is driven by the impacts of the tariffs and trade policy, he explained. And we’re starting to see signs of the Middle Eastern conflict show up in food prices because of higher gas and transportation costs. Immigration policy impacts the availability of labor in agriculture. There is just a tremendous amount of uncertainty at the moment. That’s what differentiates the current moment from other shocks that we’ve seen in the more recent past.
Ortega also pointed to more concrete proof of how Americans actually feel about the economy, which seems quite at odds with Hassett’s optimism framing. The Consumer Sentiment Index ― which is a good measure of people’s level of optimism or pessimism regarding their financial situations and the broader health of the economy ― recently registered the lowest reading since they began data, he noted.
For Ortega, the disconnect between official messaging and lived experience has consequences beyond household budgets. People lose trust, he said. They lose trust in our elected officials; they lose trust in institutions. And it can have pretty significant consequences for how people view the economy. You don’t have to tell folks who are struggling to make ends meet what’s going on. And the messaging they’re getting isn’t aligned with their lived experiences, which leads to an erosion of trust that can be pretty problematic for economic policy going forward.
For Americans feeling squeezed, there are some everyday ways to help ease the burden. Food prices are significantly higher today than they were just a few years ago, and costs are up all along the supply chain. But supermarkets and grocery stores are still competing for customers’ business, Ortega explained. So it pays off to shop around a little bit, to take advantage of deals and promotions that some grocery retailers may be able to provide.
He also recommended considering substituting pricier food items for lower-cost options when possible. If there’s a type of protein right now that’s high, you can maybe substitute it for something else, and it also may pay off to consider private labels or store brands that sell at a much more affordable price point than some of the national brands, Ortega said.
For non-food items, you can also track deals with price-monitoring tools and browser extensions that give you cash back on purchases. Make use of gift cards and rewards points, and avoid rushing into big spending decisions.
Be mindful of your gas consumption and consider exploring ways to make a tank last longer. Keep an eye out for hidden fees that tend to sneakily rise during times of economic uncertainty as well.
Still, individual budgeting strategies only go so far. Ortega was clear that the bigger solutions are political, not personal. Prices are high for American consumers right now, and we’ve seen policies and actions in the past year and a half that have really contributed to the resurgence in food price inflation, he said. Hold your elected officials accountable. We have elections coming up in November, and that’s an opportunity to hold public officials accountable.
This article originally peared on HuffPost.

A former McDonald’s manager who went viral when a video peared to show her putting french fries in her mouth before serving them to a customer has been ordered not to work in the fast food industry.
Kaylie Santos, a 22-year-old Southbridge resident, was charged with distributing food with a harmful substance after police investigated the video. On Friday, Santos pleaded not guilty in her initial court pearance in Dudley, according to the Telegram & Gazette.
After the hearing, the judge released Santos on personal recognizance and ordered her not to work in a fast food restaurant until her court case concludes, according to the Telegram.
Santos, a night manager at the time, peared in a video recorded on Snchat and later posted on Facebook, which caught the attention of the town’s police department and director of public health. The video quickly gained national attention as Santos is heard saying, When your girlfriend want french fries today right … she wants french fries today right.
The video from ril 9 then showed Santos grabbing a handful of french fries, putting them in her mouth and placing them in a french fry carton. Police later obtained surveillance footage from inside the restaurant that showed Santos spit into the container before placing the fries into the carton, according to a police report in Dudley District Court.
The victim told police she had dated Santos and that they had broken up a few years ago.