[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 43 (Wednesday, March 8, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H2815]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                   DON'T CUT THE SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM

  (Mr. ROMERO-BARCELO asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ROMERO-BARCELO. Mr. Speaker, the school lunch program is a good, 
proven program. It fees hungry children nutritious meals. Children who 
are not hungry learn better and are healthier. This is a simple 
premise, but it is a premise that has worked well since the original 
school lunch program was signed into law in 1946.
  I believe that it is a travesty and a disgrace to destroy such a 
successful program. Throwing this program into a block grant does 
absolutely nothing to ensure that such funds will end up in a school 
lunch program of the high caliber that we now have. As a former mayor 
and Governor, I have grave reservations about the effectiveness of a 
system of block grants where vitally necessary nutrition programs are 
forced to compete against each other for increasingly scarce dollars.
  No child in a nation like ours should go to school hungry or suffer 
from malnutrition. The school lunch program helps to ensure that this 
does not happen. It is a proven program--it works. Do not cut the 
school lunch program. Do not cut taxes for wealthy corporations at the 
cost of our children's physical and emotional health.
  This is not a Contract with America, this is a contract with the 
wealthy of America against the poor, against the veterans, and against 
the children of America.


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