While Republicans objected to the cost of public nutrition programs such as SNAP, the leader of the House Appropriations Committee said on Wednesday that “we will be doing something about extending the waivers of the school meals programs.” The waivers, a response to the pandemic that allows free meals for all public school students, are due to expire on June 30. A one-year renewal would cost an estimated $11 billion.
Appropriations chair Rosa DeLauro promised action on nutrition waivers during a subcommittee discussion of funding for the USDA, FDA, and related agencies in fiscal 2023, which begins on Oct. 1. The subcommittee approved the USDA-FDA bill on a voice vote. The full committee could vote on it as early as next week.
The $27.2 billion in discretionary funding in the bill, an 8 percent increase from this year, is far outweighed by mandatory outlays, such as $111 billion for food stamps and $28.6 billion for child nutrition programs, headlined by school lunch. The funding includes $1.8 billion for the largest U.S. food aid program, Food for Peace, and $265 million for the McGovern-Dole international school lunch program. Both would be record amounts.
“We are investing in the health and well-being of America’s kids and our schools through child nutrition programs like school meals,” said DeLauro. “And yes, we will be doing something about extending the waivers of the school meals programs so that kids in our country do not have to go hungry during their summer months or beyond.”
The School Nutrition Association, speaking for school food directors, and anti-hunger groups support an extension. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack spoke in support of it at a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing last month. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell had a leading role in blocking an extension in March, when lawmakers agreed on government funding for this fiscal year. Besides universal free meals, the waivers set reimbursement rates to schools at a higher than usual level and gave schools more leeway in meeting nutritional requirements for meals.
Texas Rep. Kay Granger, the senior Republican on the Appropriations Committee, and Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, the GOP leader on the subcommittee on agriculture, said Congress ought to cut federal spending as a way to tame high inflation. In particular, they cited language that allows the USDA to spend “for the last three months of the fiscal year, such sums as may be necessary” for food stamps. Subcommittee chairman Sanford Bishop of Georgia said the provision would ensure SNAP did not run out of money.
“We should be finding ways to rein in spending, rather than writing a blank check,” said Granger. She said the FDA would get a 10 percent increase in funding despite bungling its oversight of infant formula makers. “This bill does nothing to help farmers and ranchers who are struggling with record-high costs for things like fuel and fertilizer. This will not help the American family struggling with high grocery prices.”
Harris also targeted the “WIC bump,” which triples the money allotted for the purchase of fruits and vegetables by the pregnant women, new mothers, and infants in the USDA program. “This bill simply continues a program that was meant to be temporary, without regard to the inflationary pressures and soaring food prices already squeezing taxpayers,” he said.
“This targeted support has been a proven success,” with higher-quality diets among participants, said the National WIC Association. “This commonsense investment — extended repeatedly in fiscal year 2022 through bipartisan action — builds on WIC’s public health success to grow a healthier next generation.”
An Appropriations Committee summary of the bill is available here.
The text of the bill is available here.