The stimulus bill currently being debated in Congress includes more than $350 million for the WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) program, which distributes food aid to low-income families.
And JP Morgan, which famously declined to reveal how it would use its $25 billion in TARP bailout funds, has taken the opportunity to tout its debit cards as a good option for families getting WIC benefits. The bank is releasing a new paper today on “the funding, legislative and regulatory considerations” that switching to an all-debit food aid system would entail.
As this local report from Michigan illustrates, an all-electronic WIC program makes sense in terms of decreasing the stigma and increasing the convenience for families receiving aid. But I can’t help but smile at the timing of JP Morgan’s entreaty on a day when the president announces executive-pay limits that make its CEO publicly pouty.
