[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 42 (Tuesday, March 30, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H1686-H1688]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SCHOOL LUNCH AND CHILD NUTRITION PROGRAMS REAUTHORIZATION
Mr. CASTLE. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
Senate bill (S. 2241) to reauthorize certain school lunch and child
nutrition programs through June 30, 2004.
The Clerk read as follows:
S. 2241
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN MILITARY HOUSING ALLOWANCES.
Section 9(b)(7) of the Richard B. Russell National School
Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1758(b)(7)) is amended by striking
``March 31, 2004'' and inserting ``June 30, 2004''.
SEC. 2. CHILD AND ADULT CARE FOOD PROGRAM.
Section 17(a)(2)(B)(i) of the Richard B. Russell National
School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1766(a)(2)(B)(i)) is amended by
striking ``March 31, 2004'' and inserting ``June 30, 2004''.
SEC. 3. REIMBURSEMENT TO STATES UNDER COMMODITY DISTRIBUTION
PROGRAMS.
Section 15(e) of the Commodity Distribution Reform Act and
WIC Amendments of
[[Page H1687]]
1987 (7 U.S.C. 612c note; Public Law 100-237) is amended by
striking ``April 1, 2004'' and inserting ``July 1, 2004''.
SEC. 4. FUNDING MAINTENANCE OF COMMODITY DISTRIBUTION
PROGRAMS.
Section 14(a) of the Richard B. Russell National School
Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1762a(a)) is amended by striking ``March
31, 2004'' and inserting ``June 30, 2004''.
SEC. 5. SUMMER FOOD SERVICE PROGRAM FOR CHILDREN.
(a) In General.--Section 13(q) of the Richard B. Russell
National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1761(q)) is amended by
striking ``March 31, 2004'' and inserting ``June 30, 2004''.
(b) Pilot Projects.--Section 18(f)(2) of the Richard B.
Russell National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1769(f)(2)) is
amended by striking ``March 31, 2004'' and inserting ``June
30, 2004''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Delaware (Mr. Castle) and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Castle).
General Leave
Mr. CASTLE. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their
remarks and include extraneous material on S. 2241.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from Delaware?
There was no objection.
Mr. CASTLE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, I rise to support bipartisan legislation that extends
certain child nutrition provisions, that are set to expire at the end
of this month, through June 30, 2004. This extension is vital to ensure
that low-income children have access to safe and nutritious food in
school, after school, and during the summer months.
The National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs, WIC, the Child and
Adult Care Food, After School Snack, and Summer Food Service Programs,
together make up a network of Federal child nutrition programs that are
a critical part of our Nation's effort to ensure that needy children in
America do not go hungry.
One week ago, the House passed H.R. 3873, the Child Nutrition
Improvement and Integrity Act, with overwhelming bipartisan support.
H.R. 3873 significantly improves Federal child nutrition programs by
increasing program access for eligible children, enhancing program
integrity, and emphasizing the importance of nutrition education,
balanced diets, and physical activity to reduce the incidence of
childhood obesity.
I urge the other body to pass companion legislation to reauthorize
child nutrition programs soon so that children and their families can
take advantage of these and other improvements to current law contained
in H.R. 3873.
The extensions included in today's legislation are a temporary
measure to assure the continuation of current law until final
legislation is signed into law. S. 2241 will assure us that millions of
needy children will not lose access to meals and snacks that are needed
for their healthy growth and development and academic success in
school.
Millions of children, including many whose mothers and fathers serve
in America's armed services, rely on these programs each day. Without
this legislation, many children who reside with their parents in
privatized military housing would lose the benefit of free- or reduced-
price school meals. In Delaware, approximately 250 children will
benefit from this extension and up to 100,000 children nationwide.
Taking these 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.
This legislation would also continue the availability of healthy
meals and snacks to low-income children enrolled in for-profit child
care centers. Additionally, this legislation would allow schools,
churches, and community organizations to operate summer food service
program sites and, in 14 States, continue special pilot programs to
reduce paperwork and thereby increase the number of disadvantaged
children who receive free meals and snacks during the summer months.
Madam Speaker, there are just a few reasons why S. 2241 should be
approved today with unanimous support. 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 Congress
can complete its work on legislation reauthorizing both the Child
Nutrition Act and Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act. I
conclude by asking that my fellow colleagues to please join me in
support of S. 2241.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I am pleased to join my colleagues in urging passage of S. 2241 to
extend the authority for important child nutrition programs. I was
pleased to stand on this floor last week with the gentleman from Ohio
(Chairman Boehner) and the gentleman from Delaware (Chairman Castle),
the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller), ranking member, and
our entire committee to pass H.R. 3873, the Child Nutrition Improvement
and Integrity Act, the House bill which both authorizes and makes some
important improvements to the Federal child nutrition program.
H.R. 3873 improves accuracy in the school meals program without
dropping eligible children. It makes it easier for eligible students to
get free and reduced meals by making the application process easier.
H.R. 3873 makes homeless and migrant youth and children whose
families receive food stamps automatically eligible for free meals. It
allows youth up to age 18 to participate in meals programs if they are
living in domestic violence or homeless shelters. It increases startup
and expansion grants for the School Breakfast Program and includes a
study of the best ways to overcome common barriers to offering
breakfasts at all schools for all students.
H.R. 3873 helps students make better food choices and fight obesity
with team nutrition which provides nutrition education to students and
training and support to improve the nutrition of food sold in schools.
It requires school districts to develop a local wellness policy which
addresses both what students eat at school and the role that physical
activity plays in good health. It creates greater opportunities for
schools.
It includes fresh and dried fruits and fresh vegetables in school
meals, gets our very youngest children off to a healthy start with the
new WIC Fruit and Vegetable Pilot Program that will study the benefits
of including fruit and vegetables in the WIC food package.
When we passed H.R. 3873 last week, Mr. Speaker, we proved that child
nutrition truly is a bipartisan priority here in the House of
Representatives. I urge my colleagues in the other body to make it a
priority as well so that we can get child nutrition reauthorization and
the improvements we need into law.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I
reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
The primary goal of all of the Federal child nutrition programs is to
increase opportunities for low-income infants and children so that they
will eat nutritious food. Anytime the economy takes a turn for the
worse, as it has done for a while now, we can see it first in the
number of low-income children who do not have enough to eat.
{time} 1400
The 2003 Key National Indicators of Children's Well-Being reports
that nearly 46 percent of American children who live in poverty were in
``food insecure'' households, households that reported difficulty in
obtaining enough food and increased use of emergency food sources,
resulting in reduced food intake and resulting in hunger.
WIC and the School Lunch and Breakfast Programs and the Child and
Adult Care Food Program are our very best weapons in the fight against
childhood hunger. These programs ensure that every eligible infant and
child in this Nation has access to nutritious food: at home, through
the WIC Program; in child care, through the Child
[[Page H1688]]
and Adult Food Program; in school, through the School Breakfast and
Lunch Programs; during out-of-school time, through After School and
Summer Programs; and in homeless and domestic violence shelters.
Another way to get more food to hungry kids, particularly kids in
working poor families, would be to pass the bill of the gentleman from
Connecticut (Mr. Shays), of which I am a cosponsor, to phase out the
reduced price category in school lunch and breakfast.
The 40 cents fee for reduced school price lunch is a major barrier
for children of the working poor. While 40 cents may not seem like much
money to us, if your income is between 130 percent and 185 percent of
the poverty line and you have more than one child, it is often more
than you can afford to spend.
Eliminating the reduced price category would save schools
immeasurable time and money, because it would reduce their paperwork
burdens and greatly simplify the eligibility program in the process.
Eliminating reduced prices works for schools, it works for hungry
kids, and it should be something we start immediately.
Another change for the better would be to improve the nutrition
quality of all of the food sold in our schools. Today, one out of every
six children is overweight; and childhood obesity raises special
concerns. It places children at high risk for disease and conditions
previously only associated with adults. Nearly two-thirds of obese 5-
to 10-year-olds have at least one additional risk factor for
cardiovascular disease. There has been a dramatic increase in the
numbers of children with Type II diabetes, the form of the disease
directly linked to overweight adults.
In addition, childhood obesity is a strong predictor of adult
obesity. A recent study found that 77 percent of children with a body
mass index greater than the 95th percentile remained obese as adults.
A study just released by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention found that, if current trends continue, obesity will become
the leading cause of preventible death by next year; not in the future,
next year.
Over-consumption of low nutrition soft drinks and snacks plays a key
role in childhood obesity. Yet 43 percent of elementary schools, 74
percent of middle schools, and 98 percent of high schools have vending
machines, school stores or snack bars that sell soft drinks, candy,
salty snacks and baked goods that are at high risk and high in fat,
while, at the same time, not providing healthy snacks as a balance.
We need a good, scientifically-based study on what is a healthy
school environment; and then we need to help schools create that
environment for their students. The child nutrition bill that we passed
last week takes some good first steps with the local wellness policy
and team nutrition, but we need to be doing much, much more.
In addition to that, we should be trying to help all children make
healthy eating choices. I certainly do not mean that we or should
anyone else should become food policemen or policewomen, but schools
can be offered incentives to make healthy foods available, and children
can be educated to choose those healthy foods.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, this is all pretty simple. We are passing this Senate
bill to extend these programs from the end of March, which is tomorrow,
until June 30. Hopefully, in that time the other body will take up the
full reauthorization of these various nutrition programs.
I think the gentlewoman from California stated it correctly in terms
of the benefit of those programs. It is my hope, frankly, that they use
our bill as the base bill for what they are going to do. I think we are
pretty much in unanimous consent in this House that what is in there
makes a lot of sense. That is the reason we need to pass this today.
Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 2241, which extends
the authorization for the expiring portions of federal child nutrition
programs for an additional three months.
The child nutrition programs include the National School Lunch and
Breakfast Programs; the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for
Women, Infants, and Children (or WIC); the Child and Adult Care Food
Program; the After School Snack Program; and the Summer Food Service
Program.
These invaluable programs--which are responsible for providing
nutritious meals to millions of children and adults every day--are due
for reauthorization this year. I am pleased to note that the House
acted decisively last week to approve comprehensive reauthorization
legislation, showing overwhelming support for a bill that includes
positive reforms to improve program integrity and ensure services for
eligible children. Unfortunately we have not had the opportunity to
complete the reauthorization process with our friends on the other side
of the Capitol, and for that reason, we are here today seeking to
extend the current authorization an additional three months.
This bill contains one provision of particular importance to our
Nation's soldiers, sailors and airmen. If this legislation is not
approved, the children of Armed Forces members who live in privatized
military housing and who are eligible for free and reduced-price lunch
will lose their school meal subsidies. This would be an insult to these
parents who work every day to secure our Nation's freedom.
In addition, this legislation contains a provision that allows for-
profit child care centers to continue to participate in the Child and
Adult Care Food Program, and to continue to provide meals and snacks to
centers where at least 25 percent of the children enrolled meet the
income eligibility requirements for free and reduced-price lunch.
Parents will always bear primary responsibility for their children's
health and nutrition, but this bill provides assistance for those who
are having trouble making ends meet. The overall goal of all of the
child nutrition programs is to make sure that low-income children and
families have access to low-cost meals and snacks that are safe and
nutritious.
The Child Nutrition Improvement & Integrity Act approved by the House
last week includes important steps to ensure effective and efficient
use of federal resources dedicated to child nutrition programs. The
bipartisan bill, authored by Representative Mike Castle (R-DE), would
significantly enhance integrity in how the child nutrition programs are
administered, and would ensure vulnerable children and families have
improved access to nutritional services. I am eager to move forward
with the Child Nutrition Improvement & Integrity Act, and I believe the
extension before us will allow the Congress to complete a thorough and
comprehensive reauthorization process that includes the positive
reforms approved by the House last week.
This bipartisan bill is a simple, straightforward tool to make sure
we are serving the millions of low-income children who depend upon the
programs contained in the Child Nutrition and Richard B. Russell
National School Lunch Acts. Mr. Speaker, I strongly support the bill
before us today and I encourage the House to act once again in a
bipartisan show of support for federal child nutrition programs by
voting ``yes'' on S. 2241.
Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Whitfield). The question is on the
motion offered by the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Castle) that the
House suspend the rules and pass the Senate bill, S. 2241.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor
thereof) the rules were suspended and the Senate bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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