The thing that ate the WIC budget

Sometimes an obscure lobbying fight tells a larger story. This phenomenon is playing out right now on the unlikely issue of infant formula"and the broader, disturbing lesson is how hard it is to take even the most common-sense steps to save taxpayer dollars. Infant formula is big business, and formula makers' biggest customer by far is the federal government. More than half of U.S. formula sales come through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), which provides it free. In fiscal 2009, formula accounted for $850 million of WIC's $7.3 billion budget. Starting in 2002, formula makers began to offer products with additives"docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and arachidonic acid (ARA)"to replicate fatty acids in breast milk. Not surprisingly, these formulas cost more. The Agriculture Department, which oversees WIC, allowed state programs to decide what formula to buy. Not surprisingly, formula makers lobbied states to spring for the souped-up versions. And, perhaps not coincidentally, when WIC was reauthorized in 2004, Congress tucked in language telling states that when soliciting bids for infant formula, they could not require manufacturers to include or omit specific ingredients.