Posted May 13, 2014
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture is
looking to include language in the fiscal 2015 spending bill to stop school
lunch reforms set to begin this July, according to an article by Politico
available here.
Nutrition advocates are concerned about the House plans, saying that it shows growing partisanship and congressional intervention in
school nutrition policy set by USDA. “This
shift is really a big change in how the program has been dealt with in the
past,” said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for
Science in the Public Interest. “I think the political wrangling that’s going
on is really misguided.”
In 2011, tomato sauce was given “extra credit” as a
vegetable and recently, the House inserted report language in the omnibus bill
directing USDA to “create a waiver program for schools struggling to meet the
new nutrition requirements, but USDA’s lawyers ultimately determined the
department didn’t have the statutory authority to do so.”
The subcommittee is not releasing details on its plans,
but the staff of Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) “confirmed appropriations staff has
an interest in addressing the concerns raised by dozens of other lawmakers.”
“We already went through the omnibus, and we’re working
through the appropriations process,” Davis said in an interview. “All we’ve ever asked for is flexibility for
the schools,” said Davis who also pointed “out that more than a million
children have dropped out of the program and says plate waste has increased
since the latest round of nutritional standards went into place.”
Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), a long-time nutrition
advocate, expressed concern about the plans in the House and the “increasingly
partisan debate that’s taking place.”
“It
would be a sad day if child nutrition programs with 40 years of public health
science and long-standing, bipartisan support behind them are eroded because
Congress allows these programs to be guided by industry’s bottom line instead
of what is best for our kids,” Harkin said.
“Let’s be clear, the changes to nutrition programs people are pushing
will mean more sodium in kid’s meals, fewer fruits and vegetables on their
plates, more sugary drinks and snacks in our schools, and French fries for toddlers
in the [Women, Infants and Children] program.”
For more information on school lunch and nutrition
programs, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
