The Senate Agriculture Committee has unanimously approved legislation drafted by Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) that would reauthorize child nutrition programs. The legislation would increase spending on child nutrition programs by $4.5 billion over the next ten years.
In addition to the increase in funding, the bill also would create national school nutrition standards for all foods sold on school campuses throughout the school day. The provision would require USDA to establish national nutrition standards consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans for all foods sold on school campuses throughout the school day. Current regulations limiting the sale of foods sold in schools are very narrow and have not been updated in almost 30 years, according to Lincoln.
According to a statement from Lincoln's office, more than 30 million children participate in the school lunch program each day and more than 10 million children participate in the national school breakfast program.
The additional nutrition program funding would come in part from a reduction in the growth rate of USDA's environmental quality incentives program. Section 442 of the bill would lower the annual spending cap on EQIP to $1.447 billion from $1.588 billion. Because Congress and the Obama administration have been unwilling to appropriate funds for that program at its fully authorized level, the reduction in the cap will still allow actual funding of EQIP to grow, said a spokeswoman for Lincoln.
Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), the ranking member on the House Agriculture Committee, said he was "displeased" that the Senate committee chose to approve the child nutrition measure at the expense of EQIP. "I would hope that those charged with representing American agriculture would understand the importance of EQIP and how our farmers and ranchers depend on it for survival," said Lucas in a statement. "This vote undermines the commitment we all made to our producers in the 2008 farm bill.
"No one disputes the importance of child nutrition, but we cannot continue to use programs that benefit our agricultural producers as a funding source for other programs," Lucas said.
