[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 83 (Thursday, June 4, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6205-S6215]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. SPECTER (for himself and Mr. Casey):
  S. 1195. A bill to require the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out 
the Philadelphia universal feeding pilot program until the last day of 
the 2012-2013 school year of the School District of Philadelphia; to 
the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I rise today to speak on the Department 
of Agriculture's decision to end the Philadelphia School District's 
Universal Feeding Pilot Program and to introduce legislation extending 
the program. While changes to the Philadelphia program may be 
necessary, the appropriate time to consider these changes is during 
congressional reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act. Senator Casey 
and I are seeking to extend the program through the 2012-13 school 
year. This extension is necessary to ensure that thousands of children 
in Philadelphia's poorest schools are not deprived of the nutritional 
assistance they have relied on for over 17 years.
  Recognizing the value of proper nutrition to successful learning, 
Congress, in 1946, passed the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch 
Act. This act provides the authority for the School Lunch Program, as 
well as several other child nutrition initiatives. In 1966 Congress 
expanded on its commitment to child nutrition by passing the Child 
Nutrition Act, which authorized the School Breakfast Program. These 
programs have continued to evolve through changing times and changing 
technologies to ensure that the goal of providing nutrition assistance 
to our Nation's school children is met.
  In 1991 the Department of Agriculture worked with the Philadelphia 
School District to develop a more streamlined method of reimbursing the 
School District for meals served under the National School Breakfast 
and School Lunch Program, and ensuring all eligible students receive 
free meals.

[[Page S6215]]

This new method eliminated paper applications for free school meals, 
and replaced them with a socioeconomic survey based method of 
determining reimbursement rates and eligibility.
  Paper applications are costly, and parents too often fail to return 
them. The socioeconomic survey based approach was chosen because it 
reduced administrative overhead costs and is thought to better ensure 
that all eligible students are accounted for. In addition, by providing 
Universal Service the stigma associated with receiving a free or 
reduced price school meal is eliminated. Indeed, during the first year 
of the Universal Feeding Pilot Program, the Philadelphia School 
District saw a 14 percent increase in lunch participation in elementary 
schools, a 45 percent increase in middle schools and a 180 percent 
increase in high schools. The Philadelphia Universal Feeding Pilot 
Program has successfully increased student participation in the school 
meal program. Should this program be ended, as the Department of 
Agriculture would have it, children in the Philadelphia School District 
will have their ability to learn undermined by Washington, DC, 
bureaucrats.
  The students and parents in 200 of Philadelphia's poorest schools 
have not filled out paper applications for free and reduced priced 
school meals in over seventeen years. It is almost certain that some 
parents will fail to return paper applications to the school district, 
resulting in the underreporting of eligible students. In fact, the 
Secretary of Agriculture tacitly acknowledges the ineffectiveness of 
paper applications by offering outreach assistance to the Philadelphia 
School District.
  A decrease in the amount of students claiming free or reduced lunches 
will lower the Department of Agriculture's reimbursement rate to the 
Philadelphia School District. Reducing the school meal reimbursement 
rate will not only cause the Philadelphia School District budgetary 
problems in relation to the school meals program, but because other 
grant funding is often based on the percentage of low income students 
in a district, as determined by participation rates in the school meal 
program, the District could potentially lose millions of dollars in 
other state and Federal grant funding. Federal E-rate funding, for 
example, which is used for educational technology, is based directly on 
school meal program eligibility percentages.
  Congress is expected to take up the Child Nutrition Act 
reauthorization later this year. Universal Feeding and the National 
School Breakfast and Lunch Program will be a part of this debate, and 
this is an appropriate time and place to consider changes to the 
program. We know from experience that Congressional action is not 
always as swift as planned, and that the legislative calendar changes 
from week to week if not from day to day.
  Therefore, Senator Casey and I introduce legislation today to extend 
the Philadelphia School District's Universal Feeding Pilot Program 
through the close of the 2012-2013 school year to ensure that 
Philadelphia school children receive the necessary nutritional 
assistance until Congress can enact a new policy.

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