Fresh from unanimous committee approval of their five-year child nutrition bill, leaders of the Senate Agriculture Committee predicted the bill would rocket to Senate passage, and could influence House action as well. Chairman Pat Roberts said the bipartisan bill had filibuster-proof support: “We can certainly do that.” And senior Democrat Debbie Stabenow was confident of defeating any attempts to water down the bill, which unified long-feuding school nutrition and anti-hunger groups. “The Senate bill is a win for children, parents, schools and our country’s future,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
However, Roberts said, there was no commitment by party leaders on when the bill would be called for floor debate. The House Education Committee has yet to draft a bill to reauthorize child-nutrition programs, headlined by school lunch and WIC, which cost $22 billion a year. Statutory authority for the programs expired last fall amid congressional gridlock. “Every member of this committee wanted to move this bill forward,” said Roberts, crediting good-faith negotiations for leading to bipartisan agreement.
“I think it [the Senate bill] would influence the House, very obviously,” said Roberts, because it resolves nettlesome disputes over serving more whole grains, fruit, vegetables and low-fat dairy, while reducing salt, fat and sugar in school meals.
The bill calls on the USDA to write regulations that require 80 percent of grains served at schools to be whole grain, instead of the current 100 percent; to delay for two years, until 2019, new limits on salt; and to set up working groups to consider if higher-calorie and higher-salt foods, such as pizza and deli sandwiches, should be available for sale on a la carte lines.
Critics said the new standards were unduly costly and that some schools had trouble finding foods that complied with the 2010 reforms. The Republican-controlled Congress has delayed the Target 2 salt standard and given schools more leeway on whole grains.
“We have a five-year agreement,” said Stabenow, which would end the annual tussle over rules. “I am happy to say this reauthorization keeps us moving forward.” Stabenow was a fierce opponent of rollbacks of the 2010 child-nutrition law.
The bill eases the way for expansion of the summer food program, which now serves a fraction of the poor children who receive meals for free or at reduced cost during the school year. Expansion of summer food was an objective of the administration, which opposed rollbacks of nutrition standards.
Roberts said the bill would use “modernized and enhanced oversight” to reduce error rates by schools in deciding who qualifies for reduced-price and free meals, by cafeteria workers in recording which meals are eligible for higher federal reimbursement, and by school workers in making claims for reimbursement. The USDA has acknowledged that error rates are unacceptably high. “With a focus on fraud, and an emphasis on the use of technology and data matching, this proposal will improve accuracy and reduce error in these programs without increasing administrative burdens and reducing access,” Roberts said in opening the committee’s mark-up session.
“There is a likelihood that multiple eligible children will fall off the program,” said Ellen Teller of the anti-hunger group Food Research and Action Center. The bill will require schools to doublecheck the eligibility of more children, with the risk of disqualification for minor errors in completing an application. “If this becomes a huge issue, we will pay attention to that,” said Stabenow.
The bill provides no additional funds for child nutrition. The “pay for” expansion of summer food is the stricter standard on eligibility and bookkeeping of the school meals programs, said one activist.
Some 30.5 million students eat a hot meal each day through the school lunch program, with nearly three-quarters of the meals served for free or at reduced price. The school breakfast program has an average 8.9 million participants, while summer food serves 2.3 million children a day at its peak.
Agriculture Committee members approved the bill on a unanimous voice vote after 18 minutes of discussion. Senators spent an additional half hour in praising the package, titled the Improving Child Nutrition Integrity and Access Act. “I think this should be the ‘making school lunch great again’ legislation,” said Republican John Thune of South Dakota.