Debate over school meals continues as Senate child nutrition markup postponed
September 14, 2015 |07:49 PM
Debate continued today over school meals rules as Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., postponed a markup of a child nutrition reauthorization bill scheduled for Thursday.
The committee is awaiting scores on provisions of proposed child nutrition reauthorization legislation from the Congressional Budget Office and will reschedule the markup soon, Roberts said in a news release.
Roberts said he is “continuing negotiations” with ranking member Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., “to get a bipartisan, budget-neutral agreement."
Stabenow said she is “hopeful that the committee can still produce a bill that is bipartisan and balanced,” a spokesman in her office said.
“Sen. Stabenow will continue to work toward commonsense priorities that help families and children like strengthening afterschool and summer meals, expanding opportunities for kids to have healthy, local foods, and protecting critical assistance to pregnant mothers and babies through WIC.”
The School Nutrition Association today wrote to key congressional leaders asking for more money and increased flexibility in implementing the school meal rules under the 2010 Healthier Hunger-Free Kids Act.
SNA, which represents school food service directors and the companies that make school foods, sent the letter to Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and ranking member Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and to House Education and the Workforce Chairman John Kline, R-Minn., and ranking member Bobby Scott, D-Va.
Meanwhile, more than 375 retired generals and admirals active in the Mission Readiness group sent Congress a letter urging members not to lower the school meals standards.
“We urge all members of Congress to stand united to maintain the science-based nutrition standards in the child nutrition reauthorization,” said retired Maj. Gen. Allen Youngman.
“We should continue to support any schools that are having a tougher time, but like our armed forces, we should not stop when the going gets tough,” Youngman said. “When our children’s health and our national security are at stake, retreat is not an option.”
Share Our Strength, an anti-hunger group that has mounted a “No Kid Hungry” campaign, posted a video encouraging more money for summer meals.
The postponement announcement is a signal that Republicans and Democrats have not been able to come to agreement on how to handle the future of the healthier school meal rules.
The Healthier Hunger-Free Kids Act directed the Agriculture Department to establish school meal nutrition rules to reduce fat, sugar and sodium and increase fruit and increase low-fat dairy and meat, and required that students be served a half-cup of fruits and vegetables at each school meal.
The bill also said that the schools could no longer use payments for children receiving free and reduced price lunches to subsidize the price for middle-class children in order to keep down the price for those who are supposed to pay almost the entire cost of their lunches. It also established standards for school food service officials.
The child nutrition programs expire on September 30, but most of them — including school meals and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance for Women, Infants and Children known as WIC — continue under appropriations.
The House Education and the Workforce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the programs in the House, has not scheduled a markup.
There is speculation that the Republican Congress and the Democratic Obama administration will never come to agreement on reauthorization of the programs and also speculation that the White House very much wants a five-year reauthorization of the child nutrition programs before it leaves office.
Healthy school meals are a signature part of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative.
The committee is awaiting scores on provisions of proposed child nutrition reauthorization legislation from the Congressional Budget Office and will reschedule the markup soon, Roberts said in a news release.
Roberts said he is “continuing negotiations” with ranking member Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., “to get a bipartisan, budget-neutral agreement."
Stabenow said she is “hopeful that the committee can still produce a bill that is bipartisan and balanced,” a spokesman in her office said.
“Sen. Stabenow will continue to work toward commonsense priorities that help families and children like strengthening afterschool and summer meals, expanding opportunities for kids to have healthy, local foods, and protecting critical assistance to pregnant mothers and babies through WIC.”
The School Nutrition Association today wrote to key congressional leaders asking for more money and increased flexibility in implementing the school meal rules under the 2010 Healthier Hunger-Free Kids Act.
SNA, which represents school food service directors and the companies that make school foods, sent the letter to Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and ranking member Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and to House Education and the Workforce Chairman John Kline, R-Minn., and ranking member Bobby Scott, D-Va.
Meanwhile, more than 375 retired generals and admirals active in the Mission Readiness group sent Congress a letter urging members not to lower the school meals standards.
“We urge all members of Congress to stand united to maintain the science-based nutrition standards in the child nutrition reauthorization,” said retired Maj. Gen. Allen Youngman.
“We should continue to support any schools that are having a tougher time, but like our armed forces, we should not stop when the going gets tough,” Youngman said. “When our children’s health and our national security are at stake, retreat is not an option.”
Share Our Strength, an anti-hunger group that has mounted a “No Kid Hungry” campaign, posted a video encouraging more money for summer meals.
The postponement announcement is a signal that Republicans and Democrats have not been able to come to agreement on how to handle the future of the healthier school meal rules.
The Healthier Hunger-Free Kids Act directed the Agriculture Department to establish school meal nutrition rules to reduce fat, sugar and sodium and increase fruit and increase low-fat dairy and meat, and required that students be served a half-cup of fruits and vegetables at each school meal.
The bill also said that the schools could no longer use payments for children receiving free and reduced price lunches to subsidize the price for middle-class children in order to keep down the price for those who are supposed to pay almost the entire cost of their lunches. It also established standards for school food service officials.
The child nutrition programs expire on September 30, but most of them — including school meals and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance for Women, Infants and Children known as WIC — continue under appropriations.
The House Education and the Workforce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the programs in the House, has not scheduled a markup.
There is speculation that the Republican Congress and the Democratic Obama administration will never come to agreement on reauthorization of the programs and also speculation that the White House very much wants a five-year reauthorization of the child nutrition programs before it leaves office.
Healthy school meals are a signature part of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative.
