[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 124 (Thursday, August 25, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 25, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
            THE BETTER NUTRITION AND HEALTH FOR CHILDREN ACT

  Mr. LUGAR. Mr. President, I rise to support legislation before us 
today to reauthorize the special supplemental nutrition program for 
women, infants and children [WIC], the summer food service program, the 
commodity distribution program, the nutrition education and training 
program, the homeless preschool program, and the State administrative 
expenses program. The legislation also makes improvements to these 
programs and those child nutrition programs which are already 
permanently authorized--the school lunch, school breakfast, child and 
adult care food, and special milk programs.
  Although the fiscal starting-point for this bill was an 
administration budget that did not provide for any child nutrition 
program expansions other than WIC, this legislation does include 
provisions that will make our child nutrition resources go farther. The 
bill strengthens breastfeeding promotion in the WIC program, gives 
schools with high rates of free and reduced-price participation greater 
opportunities for reducing paperwork, and assists with school breakfast 
and summer food service program start-up and expansion, so that more 
children will have access to these programs.
  The bill also extends a pilot project on alternative eligibility for 
the child and adult care food program, on which Senator McConnell has 
done important work, and includes provisions developed by Senator Dole 
to improve program accessibility for children with disability-related 
special dietary needs. At Senator Gorton's suggestion, the bill 
includes language on informing summer food service program sponsors of 
sources of funding to support all-day activities at their sites.

  The bill makes administrative improvements to the WIC Farmers' Market 
Program which were advocated by Senator Grassley, among others. It also 
includes language development by the distinguished chairman to prevent 
fraud and bid-rigging in the child nutrition programs by establishing 
mandatory debarment periods and providing for relevant technical 
assistance and training for State and local agencies.
  I am very pleased that the bill includes legislation I first 
introduced in 1991 to eliminate the Federal mandate on the types of 
milk schools must offer with lunch. Current law requires schools to 
offer whole and low-fat unflavored milk with lunch. My legislation 
gives local school food service personnel the authority to make the 
decision. During hearings on reauthorization, the Committee on 
Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry heard testimony in support of my 
legislation from numerous nutrition experts.
  The bill before us allows States and schools to decide what types of 
milk to serve. Removing the Federal mandates will give school food 
service professionals more administrative flexibility and assist their 
efforts to follow the dietary guidelines. I thank the distinguished 
chairman for including my legislation in his original bill and also 
thank Senator Craig and other members of the committee for assisting in 
working out a compromise on this provision.
  Mr. President, the legislation before us today is the product of much 
hard work by all the members of this committee and their staffs. I 
thank the chairman in particular for his leadership on this 
legislation, and urge my colleagues to support its speedy passage.
  Mr. President, I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate 
that the sole purpose of the optional model language referred to in 
section 203 of the bill is to provide for expanding the time and place 
restrictions on the sale in elementary schools of competitive foods of 
minimal nutritional value, as currently defined.
  Mr. LEAHY. There is one additional clarification to the bill that I 
intend to make at conference. The issue was brought to my attention too 
late to include in either the bill or the committee amendment to the 
bill which are before us today.
  Section 105 of the bill deals with the use of free and reduced-price 
meal information. The intent of the provision is to permit the use of 
such information to identify low-income students for potential 
eligibility in other programs, while at the same time securing the 
privacy of those children and their families.
  Toward this end, the provision limits the disclosure of data to the 
eligibility status of the child, prohibiting the disclosure of any 
specific family information without the written consent of the parent 
or guardian.
  The bill limits disclosure of eligibility status to use for other 
State or local health or education programs. This unintentionally may 
be read as prohibiting its use in identifying eligibility for Federal 
education programs.
  In conference I will work to make sure that the language in section 
105 is changed to assure the availability of free and reduced-price 
lunch data for use in the implementation of Federal education programs 
at the school level.
  Senator Pell, chairman of the Subcommittee on Education, Arts and 
Humanities, is supportive of this change, as it would allow the 
Congress to permit better targeting of the Chapter 1 program and other 
Federal education programs on low-income students.
  Mr. LUGAR. I agree that this clarification is a good idea. I will 
work with you in conference with the House to see that this amendment 
is made to the child nutrition reauthorization bill.
  It is my understanding that the committee does not intend for the 
Secretary of Agriculture, in issuing regulations implementing section 
120 of this legislation, to revise the provisions contained in section 
3017.220 of title VII of the Code of Federal Regulations.
  Mr. LEAHY. That is my understanding as well.
  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, the committee amendment to S. 1614 
includes language that will direct the Secretary to utilize the Food 
Service Management Institute at the University of Mississippi to assist 
in implementing dietary or nutritional initiatives undertaken by the 
Secretary.
  It is my understanding that this would include, but not be limited 
to, the Secretary's dietary guidelines initiative, if made final, aimed 
at improving the quality of school meals. I have discussed this with 
Assistant Secretary Haas and it is my further understanding that from 
funds appropriated to implement these initiatives, the Department will 
compensate the institute for any expenses incurred associated with 
these additional new activities.
  Mr. LEAHY. It is my understanding that the Secretary would compensate 
the institute for these additional expenses including those associated 
with its assistance in implementing the Secretary's initiative should 
that initiative be made final.
  Mr. LUGAR. This represents my understanding as well.
  Mr. COCHRAN. I thank my colleagues for these clarifications. Mr. 
President, I ask unanimous consent that a copy of a letter from 
Assistant Secretary Ellen Haas outlining the Department of 
Agriculture's intentions to utilize the Food Service Management 
Institute be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the letter was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                        Department of Agriculture,


                                      Office of the Secretary,

                                                   Washington, DC.
     Hon. Thad Cochran,
     U.S. Senate,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Senator Cochran: It was a pleasure to speak with you 
     recently to discuss the School Meals Initiative for Healthy 
     Children that Secretary Espy and I recently announced. As you 
     know, the goal of this ambitious proposal is to ensure that 
     our Nation's children have access to healthy meals at school. 
     In the course of our conversation, we discussed how the Food 
     Service Management Institute can contribute to the 
     initiative. Substantial training and technical assistance 
     will be necessary to prepare school food personnel to 
     successfully implement the updated nutrition standards. The 
     Department of Agriculture (USDA) will need a broad coalition 
     of trainers, and nutrition professionals to be successful. I 
     want to assure you that we recognize that the Food Service 
     Management Institute can be a valuable member of this 
     coalition to improve nutrition in the school meals programs.
       I understand that under the Senate version of the child 
     nutrition reauthorization bill (S. 1614) USDA could use a 
     non-competitive process to work with the Institute on 
     activities that the Secretary designates as helpful to 
     schools across the nation in implementing the School Meals 
     Initiative.
       In this regard, USDA intends to provide funds to the 
     Institute for these additional activities from an account 
     established to implement section 6(a)(3) of the National 
     School Lunch Act established to carry out training and 
     technical assistance efforts related to implementing the 
     School Meals Initiative.
       I hope this clarifies our intent, and I look forward to 
     working with you and the Institute.
           Sincerely,

                                                   Ellen Haas,

                                           Assistant Secretary for
                                       Food and Consumer Services.

  So the bill (S. 1614), as amended, was deemed read the third time, 
and passed.
  (The text of the bill, as passed, will appear in a future edition of 
the Record.)

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