Ending weeks of back-stage negotiations, Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts and the panel’s senior Democrat, Debbie Stabenow, said they agreed on a bipartisan plan to re-authorize child nutrition programs that cost $22 billion a year. School lunch is the largest part of the programs and was one of the largest obstacles to renewal. An administration spokeswoman had no immediate comment on a story in The Hagstrom report saying the Roberts-Stabenow bill has support from the White House.
Roberts and Stabenow provided no details about the “committee print” that will be put to a vote during a mark-up session next Wednesday. They have outlined their expectations, however. Roberts, who has said there will be no new funding, said in mid-December the re-authorization would increase efficiency, effectiveness, flexibility and integrity of the programs. Stabenow said there would be no retreat from 2010 reforms that call on schools to serve more fruit, vegetables, low-fat dairy and whole grains and less salt, fat and sugar. The Obama administration has said it wants to expand enrollment in school breakfast and summer food programs and to see more schools enlist in a program that offers free meals to all students in neighborhoods with high poverty rates.
The House Education Committee, which shares jurisdiction over child nutrition with Senate Ag, has not scheduled action on the re-authorization or announced a bill of its own.
Congressional Republicans and the School Nutrition Association have complained the 2010 reforms are unduly costly and difficult to meet, so more leeway is needed. The USDA says more than 90 percent of schools are in compliance.
School lunch, created in the Cold War, provides hot meals to 30 million students daily while school breakfast serves nearly 9 million children daily. Peak daily participation in summer food was 2.3 milliion. The Women, Infants and Children food program, with enrollment of 8 million, is part of the child nutrition bill, which also covers meals and snacks at child and adult day care centers for more than 3.3 million children and 120,000 adults.