CHILD NUTRITION BILL CLEARS HOUSE COMMITTEE
News Date July 20, 2010
Last week the House Education and Labor Committee passed H.R. 5504, the “Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act,” with a bipartisan vote of 32-13. The legislation includes reforms to increase the availability of child nutrition programs and improve the nutritional quality of meals served in schools. Several amendments were offered during the committee markup, including one co-sponsored by Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) and Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) to create an organic food pilot program and another offered by Jared Polis (D-CO) to launch a plant-based options pilot program. Ranking Member John Kline (R-MN) offered an alternative comprehensive reform plan to the bill. The proposal was defeated 16-30.
Similar legislation in the Senate, S. 3307 “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010,” is sponsored by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln (D-AR). In March, the Senate Agriculture Committee approved S. 3307, which would use funding from conservation programs to offset new nutrition spending. The legislation would reduce future funding for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) by $2.2 billion. It would provide an increase of $4.5 billion for school lunch and breakfast programs, as well as the Women Infant and Children program (WIC). The funding cut to EQIP would redirect a significant portion of the $3.4 billion increase the popular working lands conservation program received in the 2008 Farm Bill. (By: Torii Kappelman, Contact: Amy Mann)