The House Education and Labor Committee has approved (32-13) a child nutrition reauthorization bill that would increase spending on food programs for young people by $8 billion over a decade. The legislation (HR 5504), introduced by committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.), did not spell out the source of the offsets that would be necessary to provide the additional $8 billion.
Miller promised panel members, especially GOP members, that he would find the offsets before the measure moved to the floor. "It is a requirement that before we get to the floor, we will have in line the offsets for this legislation," Miller said. Republicans were not convinced.
Instead, Republicans offered their own substitute amendment, an alternative that would reauthorize the existing nutrition programs without a specified dollar amount.
The GOP version does not include two provisions in the underlying bill that have scored points with nutrition advocates and interest groups — a six-cent increase to the per-meal reimbursement rates for schools that meet higher nutrition standards and the granting of authority to USDA to determine what is sold in school vending machines and a la carte lines.
The Senate Agriculture Committee approved companion legislation (S 3307) in March, but that measure has not yet made it to the floor for a vote.
