By Tennille Tracy 

Capitol Hill lawmakers will soon be wrestling over the future of one of the nation's biggest food-assistance programs, and the makers of infant formula are among the unlikely players in the middle of the scrum.

The law authorizing the $6 billion-a-year WIC program, which provides food vouchers to pregnant or postpartum women and their young children, is up for renewal this year. One of the largest formula makers has suggested the program's eligibility should be tightened, noting that it has up to 20% more recipients than the government intended. Much like the government's separate food-stamp program, WIC expanded during the recession--reaching a peak of 9.2 million participants in 2010--and has since contracted to about 8.3 million women and children.

That overall growth in the program has made it a money-losing venture for makers of infant formula, the program's largest single expense, because the companies essentially make no profit off formula sold to states as part of WIC. The largest supplier in the U.S., Mead Johnson Nutrition Co., maker of Enfamil, is making the rounds on Capitol Hill, calling on lawmakers to change some of the eligibility requirements, thereby limiting or even shrinking the pool of recipients.

"We are uniquely vested in this program and, as the biggest contributor of infant formula to the [WIC] program, we see it as our duty to help put it on a sustainable path to continue serving the millions of people who truly need it," said Audrae Erickson, head of Mead Johnson's Washington, D.C., office.

Providing benefits to more than half of all babies in the U.S., the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children is the third-largest food assistance program behind food stamps and school lunches. It provides vouchers for a variety of foods for mothers and their children up to age 5, including eggs, cheese and bread, and accounts for well over half of all infant formula sold in the U.S. Like food stamps, WIC is federally funded but administered by the states.

Fierce bidding for those state contracts has led the three biggest formula makers to offer steadily deeper discounts--on average 92% below wholesale prices--eroding profits on WIC sales. But winning a state's contract makes a formula maker the dominant player on a state's grocery store shelves, where the companies try to make up for their money-losing WIC sales.

The discounts have amounted to more than $28 billion since 1997, according to one formula maker's estimate. The nation's other big formula makers are Abbott Laboratories, maker of Similac, and Nestlé SA, maker of Gerber Good Start.

To qualify for WIC vouchers, recipients have to make less than 185% of the poverty level--or $44,100 for a family of four. But people automatically qualify for WIC if they also participate in Medicaid, the health program for the poor, where eligibility is set by the states. A Wall Street Journal analysis of Medicaid benefits showed that 36 states provide benefits to infants whose families' incomes exceed WIC requirements.

Under the state of Iowa's Medicaid eligibility threshold, for example, a family of four making $89,400 could qualify for WIC benefits. Recipients also have to be nutritionally at risk.

Mead Johnson, based in Illinois, has been urging lawmakers to look closely at these income thresholds. A study commissioned by the company found that as many as one-fifth of WIC recipients make more money than the program's threshold, while the U.S. Agriculture Department puts the figure at 1.5% of recipients.

To help make its argument, Mead Johnson has hired a lobbying firm run by Blanche Lincoln, a former Democratic senator from Arkansas who played a key role in reauthorizing the WIC program in 2010 as the chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

Republicans say it is too early to talk about specific changes to the law but note that all components of the program are up for review.

"The focus will remain on preserving the intent of these programs, which is to ensure low-income children--and, in this case, mothers and infants in need--receive supplemental assistance to help protect against inadequate nutrition," said Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R., Kan.), who has a lead role in renewing the WIC law.

Meantime, advocates for the poor say the formula company is overstating the problem.

"We're talking about a really tiny window of people who make more than the WIC income threshold," said Douglas Greenaway, president of the National WIC Association, a nonprofit advocacy group. "I think this is really an effort to put a chink in the armor of the program."

Write to Tennille Tracy at tennille.tracy@wsj.com

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