Roberts plans bipartisan child nutrition bill soon
March 05, 2015 |04:40 PM
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said Wednesday that he is planning to develop a bipartisan bill to reauthorize child nutrition programs.
In a speech to the School Nutrition Association, Roberts said he expects the bill to be released “this spring,” but after consultation with an aide declined to say when a markup would be held.
In the speech he said he would develop the bill with Senate Agriculture ranking member Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., whom he calls “the chairwoman emeritus.”
Roberts said he wants the bill to provide “flexibility” to schools having trouble complying with the school meal regulations under the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act.
He said he has already had lunch in at two schools in Kansas and may have lunch in 10 or 20 before the bill is finished. He said he could not eat the broccoli with cheese sauce at one school because the sauce did not have enough salt.
He noted that some schools are doing well at meeting the healthier school meals rules while others, particularly small schools in rural areas, are struggling.
Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan.
“We need a program that works for all districts regardless of their location and access to resources,” Roberts told the SNA, a group that represents the school food service directors and the companies that make school foods.
SNA has asked Congress to provide more flexibility even though the Agriculture Department has already changed several rules and offered to work with schools that are having problems.
Roberts acknowledged that USDA and the state departments of education have helped the schools adjust to the new rules, but he added, “Sometimes the long arm of the federal government is not the solution to all of our problems.”
Noting that there are 300 school districts in Kansas, Roberts said “a one-size-fits-all approach simply will not work.”
The rules have required a reduction in salt, and Roberts said some athletes have reported “muscles cramming up due to low sodium.”
Noting also that some students have produced videos criticizing the programs, Roberts said, “These are not stories of a successful program.”
But he said some schools that have done well had a head start in getting up to speed with the regulations and other schools need more time.
“We do not intend to take away any successes or devolve to the lowest common denominator, which some have suggested,” he said.
A Vermont SNA member told Roberts that when SNA members visited the House side of the Capitol they heard talk of block-granting the school meals program.
Roberts noted that there had been talk of block-granting the food stamp program in 1996 when he chaired the House Agriculture Committee, but that he saved the program through reforms and suggested that school lunch may need to be reformed in order to avoid the block-grant pressure.
“The answer is that we better address the needs for special schools that are in very tough shape,” he said.
Roberts also noted that the federal government will soon write a new set of dietary guidelines which will affect the school meal rules, and said those guidelines need to be based on “sound science” and flexible enough to meet the needs of all schools.
He signaled that he had not been very impressed with the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee’s report. He said he believed the report said people could “drink six cups of coffee per day — just don’t put any sugar in it.”
Roberts also noted that Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., has introduced a bill to provide more flexibility on whole grains and to limit sodium reductions. Roberts said he would attempt to incorporate Hoeven’s bill into the larger bill.
Asked whether he wants to eliminate the requirement that children take a half-cup of fruits and vegetables with each meal, as SNA has proposed, Roberts said he is in the information-gathering stage of developing the bill.
A North Dakota SNA member said that low-income children are wasting fruits and vegetables and other foods because they are not used to them at home, and suggested that the diet reform should have started with food stamps and then been applied to school meals.
Roberts said his committee would look at food stamps, but he did not address the question of whether Congress would try to limit the foods that beneficiaries can buy with food stamps.
(Under current rules food stamp beneficiaries can buy any foods except hot prepared foods, and both anti-hunger advocates and the food industry have opposed attempts to restrict purchases.)
A New York SNA member said that many problems could be solved through “universal feeding” — offering free meals to all students — and that parents would then tell children to eat healthy meals at school rather than pack them less healthy lunches.
But Roberts noted, “We have a very difficult budget situation.”
In a speech to the School Nutrition Association, Roberts said he expects the bill to be released “this spring,” but after consultation with an aide declined to say when a markup would be held.
In the speech he said he would develop the bill with Senate Agriculture ranking member Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., whom he calls “the chairwoman emeritus.”
Roberts said he wants the bill to provide “flexibility” to schools having trouble complying with the school meal regulations under the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act.
He said he has already had lunch in at two schools in Kansas and may have lunch in 10 or 20 before the bill is finished. He said he could not eat the broccoli with cheese sauce at one school because the sauce did not have enough salt.
He noted that some schools are doing well at meeting the healthier school meals rules while others, particularly small schools in rural areas, are struggling.
“We need a program that works for all districts regardless of their location and access to resources,” Roberts told the SNA, a group that represents the school food service directors and the companies that make school foods.
SNA has asked Congress to provide more flexibility even though the Agriculture Department has already changed several rules and offered to work with schools that are having problems.
Roberts acknowledged that USDA and the state departments of education have helped the schools adjust to the new rules, but he added, “Sometimes the long arm of the federal government is not the solution to all of our problems.”
Noting that there are 300 school districts in Kansas, Roberts said “a one-size-fits-all approach simply will not work.”
The rules have required a reduction in salt, and Roberts said some athletes have reported “muscles cramming up due to low sodium.”
Noting also that some students have produced videos criticizing the programs, Roberts said, “These are not stories of a successful program.”
But he said some schools that have done well had a head start in getting up to speed with the regulations and other schools need more time.
“We do not intend to take away any successes or devolve to the lowest common denominator, which some have suggested,” he said.
A Vermont SNA member told Roberts that when SNA members visited the House side of the Capitol they heard talk of block-granting the school meals program.
Roberts noted that there had been talk of block-granting the food stamp program in 1996 when he chaired the House Agriculture Committee, but that he saved the program through reforms and suggested that school lunch may need to be reformed in order to avoid the block-grant pressure.
“The answer is that we better address the needs for special schools that are in very tough shape,” he said.
Roberts also noted that the federal government will soon write a new set of dietary guidelines which will affect the school meal rules, and said those guidelines need to be based on “sound science” and flexible enough to meet the needs of all schools.
He signaled that he had not been very impressed with the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee’s report. He said he believed the report said people could “drink six cups of coffee per day — just don’t put any sugar in it.”
Roberts also noted that Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., has introduced a bill to provide more flexibility on whole grains and to limit sodium reductions. Roberts said he would attempt to incorporate Hoeven’s bill into the larger bill.
Asked whether he wants to eliminate the requirement that children take a half-cup of fruits and vegetables with each meal, as SNA has proposed, Roberts said he is in the information-gathering stage of developing the bill.
A North Dakota SNA member said that low-income children are wasting fruits and vegetables and other foods because they are not used to them at home, and suggested that the diet reform should have started with food stamps and then been applied to school meals.
Roberts said his committee would look at food stamps, but he did not address the question of whether Congress would try to limit the foods that beneficiaries can buy with food stamps.
(Under current rules food stamp beneficiaries can buy any foods except hot prepared foods, and both anti-hunger advocates and the food industry have opposed attempts to restrict purchases.)
A New York SNA member said that many problems could be solved through “universal feeding” — offering free meals to all students — and that parents would then tell children to eat healthy meals at school rather than pack them less healthy lunches.
But Roberts noted, “We have a very difficult budget situation.”
