[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 118 (Thursday, August 5, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6832-S6835]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 HEALTHY, HUNGER-FREE KIDS ACT OF 2010

  Mrs. LINCOLN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 363, S. 
3307, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (S. 3307) to reauthorize child nutrition programs, 
     and for other purposes.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
  Mrs. LINCOLN. Madam President, there is a Lincoln-Chambliss 
substitute amendment at the desk, and I ask that the amendment be 
considered and agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read a third time, 
passed, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table; that any 
statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record, without 
intervening action or debate, and that the pay-go statement from 
Senator Conrad be printed in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The amendment (No. 4589) was agreed to.
  (The amendment is printed in today's Record under ``Text of 
amendments.'')
  The bill (S. 3307), as amended, was ordered to be engrossed for a 
third reading, was read the third time, and passed.
  Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, this is the Statement of Budgetary Effects 
of PAYGO Legislation for S. 3307, as amended.

       Total Budgetary Effects of S. 3307 for the 5-year Statutory 
     PAYGO Scorecard: net increase in the deficit of $814 million.
       Total Budgetary Effects of S. 3307 for the 10-year 
     Statutory PAYGO Scorecard: net increase in the deficit of 
     $2.189 billion.

  Also submitted for the Record as part of this statement is a table 
prepared by the Congressional Budget Office, which provides additional 
information on the budgetary effects of this Act.
  The table is as follows:

 ESTIMATE OF THE STATUTORY PAY-AS-YOU-GO EFFECTS FOR AN AMENDMENT IN THE NATURE OF A SUBSTITUTE TO S. 3307, REAUTHORIZING CHILD NUTRITION PROGRAMS (AS TRANSMITTED ON AUGUST 5, 2010--WEI10567)
                                                                              [Millions of dollars, by fiscal year]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                      2010       2011       2012       2013       2014       2015       2016       2017       2018       2019       2020    2010-2015  2010-2020
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                               Net Increase or Decrease (-) in the On-Budget Deficit Relative to Current Law (as of August 5, 2010
 
Net Budgetary Impact.............................          0        -51        -50        279     -5,108     -4,127     -2,484     -1,004       -165        265        259     -9,056    -12,184
Less:
    Previously Designated as Emergency                     0          0          0          0     -5,446     -4,424     -2,775     -1,290       -438          0          0     -9,870    -14,373
     Requirements \1\............................
Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Impact...................          0        -51        -50        279        338        297        291        286        273        265        259        814      2,189
 
                              Net Increase or Decrease (-) in the On-Budget Deficit Relative to the Effects of H.R. 1586 as Amended by the Senate on August 5, 2010
 
Net Budgetary Impact 2...........................          0        -51        -50        279     -2,138        297        291        286        273        265        259     -1,662       -287
Less:
    Previously Designated as Emergency                     0          0          0          0     -2,476          0          0          0          0          0          0     -2,476     -2,476
     Requirements \1\............................
Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Impact...................          0        -51        -50        279        338        297        291        286        273        265        259        814     2,189
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: Components may not sum to totals because of rounding.
\1\ Savings in Title IV that would result from a change to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that was previously designated as emergency.
\2\ If H.R. 1586 were to clear the Congress prior to this bill, the net deficit impact would change because some of the savings in Title IV of the child nutrition legislation that would result
  from a change to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are also included in H.R. 1586. Total savings would decline from $14.4 billion to about $2.5 billion over the 2010-2020 period.
  The net decrease in the deficit would be $1.7 billion over the 2010-2015 period and $287 million over the 2010-2020 period, if H.R. 1586 were to clear the Congress prior to this bill.
Source: Congressional Budget Office.

  Mrs. LINCOLN. Madam President, for the past 2 weeks, I have come to 
the floor of the Senate to speak about the critical importance of 
passing child nutrition legislation before we adjourn for the August 
recess, and I want to say a very special thanks to all of my colleagues 
for their hard work on this initiative, their willingness to rise above 
partisan politics, regional differences, or anything else, to seize 
this opportunity. I am so pleased today to say we have seized this 
opportunity to make a historic investment in our children.
  I started out my discussion here on the floor last week by saying all 
we would need to get this bill done was a mere 8 hours--a simple 8 
hours to pass a bill that would improve the lives of millions of 
children across this country. With the assistance of my colleagues, we 
were able to accomplish this goal in much less time than that, and I 
want to thank my colleagues again for sending such a strong bipartisan 
message of support for child nutrition.
  Before I go any further, I wish first to thank my good friend and the 
ranking member of our Agriculture Committee, Senator Chambliss, for his 
tremendous assistance in crafting this legislation and bringing us to 
this vote today. He is a wonderful partner in the Senate Committee on 
Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, and he has been a true partner in 
this effort. I greatly appreciate all his work on this bill. We could 
not have gotten to this point, nor could we have passed this, without 
him. So I am grateful to him. I also add my thanks to his staff--Martha 
Scott Poindexter and Kate Coler. And, of course, all my thanks go out 
to my staff on the Agriculture Committee--Robert Holifield, Brian 
Baenig, Dan Christenson, Hillary Caron, Courtney Rowe, and Julie Anna 
Potts. They are the absolute best.
  I also need to thank the administration--the President and First 
Lady, as well as Secretary Vilsack--for their incredible leadership on 
childhood nutrition. Their hands-on involvement, particularly in the 
last few days, has ensured that we will be able to accomplish this 
goal. I know this is an issue they all care very deeply and 
passionately about, and that is reflected in the many shared priorities 
between the Congress and the administration that are included in this 
bill.
  I must say the presence of the First Lady, her compassion, her 
diligence, her tenacity in wanting to see something happen on behalf of 
the children of this country that was productive, was progressive, and 
that moved us forward past the benchmarks we had been at since 1973 
have been amazing, and I am certainly grateful to her for all she has 
done.
  With the passage of this bill, I am pleased we are bringing some 
fresh bipartisan air into the Senate. It goes to show that when you are 
willing to roll up your sleeves, work across the aisle in a collective 
and bipartisan manner, you truly do see results. That is what the 
American people elected us to do. That is what they expect and that is 
what this bill represents.
  Most importantly, this bill is about our children, and about doing 
what is right for them and for their families. It is about connecting 
more children with the child nutrition programs which their families 
depend upon to make ends meet. It is about making sure they get the 
nutritious meals they deserve so they can succeed in the classroom and 
learn better. It is about making sure our schools and classrooms, our 
childcare settings are all places that promote good health and 
wellness, because we know that children who are healthier learn better 
and they also

[[Page S6833]]

grow up to be healthier adults, contributing more and more to our 
communities and our industries and businesses and families.
  They say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and that is 
certainly true with this bill, which makes huge leaps forward in the 
fight against childhood obesity and chronic disease. We know that 
better nutrition and more physical activity are at the heart of 
tackling the obesity epidemic in this country, and this bill promotes 
both. It provides the largest increase in the child nutrition programs 
since their inception--nearly 10 times the amount we provided in the 
last authorization. It includes the first real increase in the 
reimbursement rate for the National School Lunch Program in almost 40 
years. Madam President, 40 years. It is amazing to me--I believe I may 
have been 10 years old at the time--to see that finally, after 40 
years, we are making the kind of investment in our reimbursement for 
school nutrition programs that we should. In exchange for that extra 
cash, children will receive healthier school meals. That is the deal, 
and it is a good deal. It is a good deal for us as a Congress and those 
who are stewards of the taxpayers' dollars, and it is good for our 
children too.
  It also includes an historic agreement between schools, parents, 
public health and nutrition advocates, and the leaders in the food and 
beverage industry to establish national school nutrition standards 
throughout the school campus, not just in the lunchroom. This provision 
complements the commonsense steps we have already taken in my home 
State of Arkansas to ensure that our school environments are as healthy 
as possible for our children. With passage of this bill, we will be 
bringing some of that Arkansas wisdom to the rest of our country, and I 
am very proud of the hard work that has gone into our schools in 
Arkansas as well as our fight against childhood obesity. We are so 
incredibly proud of the steps we have taken and the successes we have 
already seen.
  The bill also takes tremendous steps forward in the fight against 
childhood hunger in Arkansas and all across our country. It reduces the 
redtape that serves as a barrier to accessing child nutrition programs 
and will connect over 100,000 additional children per year with free 
school meals. In this day and age--and particularly in this economy--
that is so critical for working families. It improves the way we feed 
hungry children during the out-of-school time. Because of this bill, an 
additional 29 million meals per year will be served through afterschool 
programs so children don't have to go to bed hungry, they don't have to 
leave school hungry, they don't have to go home hungry.
  I know there are many who wish to have seen us do more. I too would 
have liked to have gone further and made even bigger investments. But 
in this budget environment, with record deficits, we have been able to 
produce a bill that is fully paid for and will not add one dime to the 
deficit. It is the fiscally responsible and right thing to do by our 
children. At a time when families are scrimping and saving to make 
their own budgets work, we simply must pass this bill so their children 
can live longer, healthier, and more productive lives. And we will. We 
have.
  Today, in this Chamber, we have taken a major step forward. We have 
made a strong commitment to our children and to improving the health of 
the next generation of Americans. With the passage of this bill we are 
ushering in a new era that will feed the minds and the bodies and the 
souls of millions of children across this country. I look forward to 
continuing to work with my colleagues to see this legislation signed 
into law as well as making sure we are implementing this as quickly as 
we can, as we know that schoolchildren will be starting back to school 
here in the next couple of weeks. We must work hard to see this 
legislation signed into law so we can make an investment in our 
children--our greatest blessings, our greatest resource--that will last 
them a lifetime.
  Mr. CHAMBLISS. Mr. President, I am very pleased that the Senate has 
passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. I am supportive of 
the final product before us to reauthorize these important child 
nutrition programs.
  The Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry had 
three goals in mind as we drafted the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 
2010: expand access to existing programs to better reach children in 
need, improve the nutritional quality of meals, and simplify program 
rules to improve operations. I am extremely pleased that all three of 
these goals are met with this legislation.
  The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 makes a significant 
investment of over $3 billion to improve the nutritional quality of 
school meals. The performance-based increase to the reimbursement rate 
should entice more schools to meet higher standards faster than an 
across-the-board increase.
  This legislation also gives USDA the authority to regulate all foods 
sold on school campuses, far beyond the existing authority to regulate 
only meals served through the National School Lunch Program. I have 
been impressed with industry efforts to work with schools to create 
consistent voluntary guidelines to reduce caloric intake of food and 
beverages sold on school campuses. I urge the Secretary of Agriculture 
to look closely at the success of existing voluntary agreements and use 
them as a model for future regulations.
  The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 also provides greater 
access to nutrition programs for low-income children across the 
country. By expanding afterschool meals, promoting direct 
certification, and expanding community eligibility for universal meal 
service, this legislation will ensure that more children who need 
nutrition assistance will be able to participate in the programs.
  I would like to thank all the members of the Senate Agriculture 
Committee for their efforts and support of this legislation, as well as 
thank chairman Lincoln for her leadership throughout the process.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, today the Senate has passed legislation 
that will make a historic investment in our children by approving the 
first increase in real terms of the reimbursement rate for school 
lunches in 40 years.
  Now 10,000 children a year will have new access to free school meals. 
Throughout the country, there are people working hard to make sure 
these kids have a least one healthy meal each day. In my State, one of 
the people who makes that happen is Betty Brain of the Blazers Boys and 
Girls Club in Portland. She is known as Chef Betty and every day she 
cooks meals for more than 200 underserved kids, dishing up healthy 
foods with fresh ingredients to keep them healthy and strong.
  Chef Betty is not just a cook. She is an inspiration to the kids who 
come to the Boys and Girls Club every day. These kids are family to 
her, and she makes it her personal responsibility to make sure they get 
not only a good meal but also a kind word and a helping hand.
  I can guarantee that there is a Chef Betty in every Boys and Girls 
Club in America--someone who understands how important it is to help a 
child in whatever way she can.
  For all the Chef Bettys in America, we need to reauthorize these 
programs so they can keep those kids from being forced into eating not 
just any food but good food made by good people.
  Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, I am pleased that the Senate just passed 
the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. This legislation makes historic 
investments in the health and nutrition of our Nation's children. In 
addition to increasing funding for a number of programs, without adding 
a penny to the deficit, it requires a long overdue update of the 
nutrition standards for the food in our schools. I commend the 
chairwoman of the Agriculture Committee, Senator Lincoln, and its 
ranking member, Senator Chambliss, and their staffs for their hard work 
on this important legislation. I also thank our leadership for working 
to ensure this bill passed.
  I am particularly glad the bill includes provisions based on 
legislation, the Student Breakfast and Education Improvement Act, 
Senator Kohl and I introduced last year to improve school breakfast 
programs. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act will help schools invest in 
their breakfast programs. Many of my colleagues know that school 
breakfast programs face hurdles that reduce participation. This bill 
will help schools start new breakfast programs, as well as expand or 
improve existing programs.
  As I mentioned, this legislation also includes a provision to update 
school nutrition standards based on legislation introduced for the past 
several Congresses by Senator Harkin that I

[[Page S6834]]

have cosponsored. I am pleased that these standards will be updated and 
expanded to foods sold outside of the cafeteria.
  I have long advocated programs and policies that ensure schools have 
access to fresh, local food. I worked with other Senators to ensure the 
2008 farm bill removed barriers to local procurement and preference for 
our country's schools. Along those lines, I am glad that the Healthy, 
Hunger-Free Kids Act provides funding for farm-to-school programs which 
help connect farmers to schools and provide children with a new 
perspective on nutrition and food. Many Americans are now generations 
removed from the farm, and these programs can provide valuable 
knowledge of where food comes from and how it is grown. They can also 
provide farmers with a new marketing opportunity and allow them to 
collaborate directly with local schools.
  The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act also reauthorizes a number of 
important programs outside of schools, including the Special 
Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, WIC, 
the Child and Adult Care Food Program, afterschool feeding programs and 
Summer Meals. These programs are all critical to ensuring that our 
children do not go hungry outside of the school environment as well.
  I am also glad that the bill includes provisions to streamline our 
nutrition programs, such as direct certification, categorical 
eligibility, and community eligibility. It also includes funding for 
pilot programs to improve methods of providing healthy food to our 
children, which will allow local schools to try programs that work for 
them and will likely generate creative new ideas to national problems.
  I commend Senators Lincoln and Chambliss for ensuring the full cost 
of this legislation is offset. Though I might have preferred different 
offsets, I am pleased that we are able to improve our child nutrition 
programs without passing the cost onto the very children these programs 
will help.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, today the Senate has taken a lengthy stride 
toward improving the health of America's children and addressing two of 
the greatest threats to their wellbeing and security: hunger and 
obesity. By passing the bipartisan Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act to 
reauthorize Federal child nutrition programs, we will be making a 
historic investment in our children's future and in the Nation's 
future. With others in this body, I have pressed for action on this 
bill before the Senate completed its business this week. I am pleased 
that the Senate and our leaders made this bill the priority that our 
children deserve it to be.
  I have heard from countless Vermont parents, teachers, school 
administrators, food service workers, community leaders, farmers and 
others about the importance of making sure every child in America has 
access to nutritious meals at school. They all want what's best for our 
children, and they all know how crucial it is that we have passed this 
legislation today.
  In March of this year, more than 4 months ago, the Senate 
Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee unanimously approved 
this bipartisan bill, upon which our Chairman and Ranking Member have 
worked so hard. Today's action has come just in time, as the September 
30 deadline to reauthorize these programs is quickly approaching. 
Without action today, I have been concerned that we would have been 
forced into another long-term extension of these vital programs, 
sidelining the tremendous improvements that the Agriculture Committee 
has been working on for months.
  I am grateful for Chairman Lincoln and Ranking Member Chambliss for 
all that they have done to ensure that we could pass this bipartisan 
bill. Our First Lady also deserves credit for the impetus that has 
helped propel our efforts forward. She has vigorously and ably taken up 
the cause of solving the problem of childhood obesity within a 
generation, so that kids born today can reach adulthood at healthy 
weights. The groundbreaking legislation that the Senate has passed 
today will bring fundamental changes to our schools and will improve 
the food options available to our children.
  When the first national school lunch program was created in 1946, 
children in this country were plagued with malnutrition from not having 
enough of the proper nutrients for health, growth and development. At 
the time it was considered a matter of national security to safeguard 
the health and well being of our nation's children. That was a far 
different era in the health of our Nation, but the importance of these 
programs and the children they help has not diminished. Unfortunately, 
the health statistics for children in this country today are troubling; 
in fact one in five children in this country is considered obese.
  Thankfully this bill will help to put those children on the road to 
healthier, more productive and longer lives. The Healthy, Hunger-Free 
Kids Act establishes for the first time, ever, national school 
nutrition standards to ensure our children have healthier options 
available throughout the entire school day. With this legislation, 
parents across the country will know that the snacks and foods offered 
to their children at school, even the vending machine and a la carte 
lunch line options, are based on national standards established by USDA 
to ensure healthier diets.
  I believe that our school cafeterias should be treated as an 
extension of the classroom and as an opportunity for students to learn 
about nutrition, well-balanced meals, and where their food comes from. 
I thank the Chairman for including funding for the Farm to School 
program, which is a proven, common-sense, community-driven approach to 
improve the health and wellbeing of children while supporting our local 
farmers and economy. My goal in authoring the Farm to School program 
was the powerful logic of this ``two-fer'' an opportunity to get money 
into the hands of American farmers for their locally grown products, 
while supporting local economies and teaching kids about nutritious 
foods and where they come from. Vermont is leading the country in this 
effort, and I hope other States will be able to learn from our 
experiences as they incorporate more local and healthy foods into their 
cafeterias.
  It is a sad reality that hunger is a regular part of life for far too 
many children in America today, and for many children, the meals they 
get at school are sometimes the only things they will eat all day. In 
Vermont one in ten people live in food insecurity, and many of these 
are our most vulnerable, our children. In addition to increasing 
reimbursement rates and streamlining the nutrition programs to make 
them easier for families to utilize, this legislation also improves 
summer and afterschool meal programs.
  I again thank the chairman and ranking member of the Senate 
Agriculture Committee for doing a remarkable job with this legislation. 
Their hard work and dedication, and that of their staff, have resulted 
in bill that makes a historic investment in the future of this country.
  Mr. BENNET. Madam President, I am thrilled that today the Senate has 
passed what must be a top Senate priority every day: the health and 
well being of our children.
  The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act reauthorizes child nutrition 
programs before they expire on September 30. This bipartisan, 
completely paid-for legislation will make the most historic investment 
in child nutrition programs since their inception. And I am proud to 
support this bill.
  At a time when childhood obesity rates are skyrocketing and child 
poverty is increasing, this bill couldn't be more important. For kids 
to be successful in the classroom they must be well nourished--kids who 
eat right, learn better.
  More than 390,000 Colorado kids and millions more nationwide--rely on 
school meals, and this bill will make sure that those meals--and other 
foods kids have access to while at school--are nutritious and healthy. 
And that is just one example of the important investments this bill 
makes.
  Coloradans know the value of healthy living--perhaps that is one 
reason why my State is the fittest State in the Union--but we too are 
struggling with rapidly increasing obesity rates, particularly among 
children.
  Colorado is tackling the concurrent problems of child hunger and 
childhood obesity head-on with a State-led effort of ending childhood 
hunger by 2015 and a roadmap to do it. Simultaneously

[[Page S6835]]

Colorado has school districts and communities that are leading the 
Nation in piloting innovative models that put healthy eating and active 
living at the top of their priority list.
  I am thrilled that the bill we passed today builds on and supports 
the work that my State is already doing, while challenging Colorado and 
other States to go even further, to eliminate childhood hunger, to 
tackle childhood obesity, to emphasize wellness, and to build a healthy 
foundation for all kids.
  Chairman Lincoln, Ranking Member Chambliss, thank you for your 
leadership and diligent work on this historic bill. Passage of the 
Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act is an example of the Senate doing exactly 
what it should--delivering for our kids.
  Madam President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.
  Mr. LeMIEUX. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in 
morning business for up to 10 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________