[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 138 (Thursday, October 2, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1966-E1967]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   CHILD NUTRITION PROGRAM EXTENSIONS

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. MICHAEL N. CASTLE

                              of delaware

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 2, 2003

  Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, along with my colleagues, Representatives 
John A. Boehner, George Miller, and Lynn Woolsey, I am introducing 
legislation to extend for one year provisions in the Child Nutrition 
Act, the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act, and the 
Commodity Distribution Reform Act that are vital to our Nation's effort 
to ensure that low income children have access to safe and nutritious 
food in school, after school, and during the summer months.
  Members of the Committee on Education and the Workforce are busy 
preparing legislation to reauthorize and improve all the child 
nutrition programs included in the Child Nutrition Act and the Richard 
B. Russell National School Lunch Act, including the National School 
Lunch and Breakfast Programs, the Special Supplemental Nutrition 
Program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC, the Child and 
Adult Care Food Program, the After School Snack Program, and the Summer 
Food Service Program. I have been pleased with this effort and the 
progress made in preparing a bill for introduction.
  Despite our progress, Committee Members do not want to draft such 
important legislation in haste and so need additional time to ensure 
that any changes to the current law best serve the interests of the 
children whom these programs are intended to reach. Without the 
extensions included in this legislation, millions of needy children 
could lose access to healthy meals and snacks that are critical for 
their healthy growth and development and academic success in school.
  This legislation includes a very important provision that allows 
children of our Armed Forces to continue receiving free- or reduced-
price meals at school if they meet eligibility requirements. Without 
this legislation, families living in privatized military housing could 
not exempt their housing allowance from the income amount used to 
determine their children's eligibility for free- or reduced-price 
meals, like those living in military-owned housing currently can. 
Taking school meal subsidies from children when many of their mothers 
and fathers are fighting for our nation's security at home and abroad 
would have a devastating effect on these families.
  Also included in this legislation is a provision that would continue 
the ability of for-profit child care centers to participate in the 
Child and Adult Care Food Program. This program provides meals and 
snacks to children in for-profit centers when at least 25 percent of 
the children meet the income eligibility criteria for free- and 
reduced-price meals.

[[Page E1967]]

  Additionally, this legislation would extend the authority for 
schools, churches, and community organizations to operate Summer Food 
Service Program sites, and in 14 states, continue operation of special 
pilot programs that reduce paperwork requirements and thereby increase 
the number of low-income children who receive free meals and snacks 
during the summer months.
  Finally, this legislation ensures that until a child nutrition 
reauthorization bill is signed into law, commodity distribution to 
schools will be maintained at sufficient levels and that schools will 
have funds available to replace commodities that pose a potential 
health or safety risk to students.
  The child nutrition provisions that would be extended through this 
legislation benefit America's most vulnerable children. It is our duty 
as lawmakers to ensure that these at-risk children and their families 
can continue to receive the benefits for which they have been deemed 
eligible until the House and Senate complete work on legislation 
reauthorizing both the Child Nutrition Act and Richard B. Russell 
National School Lunch Act in their entirety.

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