Agricultural News
Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 Hearing Underway on Capitol Hill
Wed, 24 Mar 2010 9:54:48 CDT
The following are the opening statements from the Chairman of the Senate Ag Committee and the Ranking Republican of the Committee as they kick off the markup session for the Reauthorization of the Childhood Nutrition Program.
Here are the opening comments from Chairlady Blanche Lincoln, Democrat of Arkansas.
"The Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry will come to order. I want to thank everyone who is present here today as we begin the committee's work to reauthorize federal child nutrition programs included in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.
"Let me begin by thanking my good friend and Ranking Member of the Committee, Saxby Chambliss. We have worked closely with Senator Chambliss in crafting this bipartisan proposal, which represents a great step in the right direction towards meeting the President's goals of ending childhood hunger by 2015 and addressing the epidemic of childhood obesity in the United States.
"I also want to thank the President and the First Lady for their outstanding leadership on this issue. They have brought much-needed attention and awareness to the problems of hunger and obesity. And I must thank Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, who has been a tireless and forceful advocate on these issues.
"The legislation before us today invests roughly $4.5 billion in new funding in child nutrition programs over the next ten years more new money than we have provided for child nutrition programs since their inception and almost 10 times more new money than we spent in the previous child nutrition reauthorization.
"I want to take a moment to emphasize just how historic of an effort this legislation represents. According to the Congressional Research Service, this bill represents the first time since 1973 nearly 40 years that Congress has provided for an increase in the reimbursement rate for the National School Lunch Program.
"I should also say at the outset, that while I am tremendously proud of the legislation we are putting forth today, I recognize that more work remains to be done. As long as there are hungry children, our task will continue.
"I say to my colleagues, I am committed to working to identify additional resources for this legislation. After reporting this bill I look forward to working with my colleague Senator Baucus and the leadership in the Senate to identify additional funding.
"Make no mistake, though: this bill is a very good start. This is a bipartisan proposal that makes tough choices, and is fiscally responsible.
"This legislation reflects the three guiding principles that I have adhered to: 1) ensuring that the children who are eligible for these valuable programs are actually participating in them, 2) improving the nutritional quality of foods provided to children in order to promote health and reduce childhood obesity, and 3) streamlining administration and improving the integrity of child nutrition programs so that they better serve the needs of our kids.
"Those needs are palpable. Over 30 million children participate in the National School Lunch Program each day, and over 60 percent of those children receive free or reduced price meals. And the sad truth is that, for many low-income children participating in the school meals programs, the only stable source of food that they can count on is what they get at school.
"That's why it's so important for us to make sure that those children get connected with child nutrition programs, and this legislation invests heavily in new initiatives designed to improve our ability to automatically enroll more eligible low-income children in our National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs, as well as provide new, more simplified options for high poverty schools to offer universal free meal service to children.
"This legislation is also a landmark bill for the health and well being of our school children. It includes several initiatives designed to improve the nutritional quality of the foods we provide to children. Most notably, the bill includes a provision that represents an historic agreement between major public health groups, food and beverage companies, as well as parents and community leaders, to create national school nutrition standards. I am grateful to our esteemed immediate Past Chairman Tom Harkin for his leadership on this issue.
"This legislation will give the Secretary of Agriculture the authority to establish national standards consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans for all foods sold in schools.
"What this policy will mean is that healthier, more nutritious foods will be more widely available throughout the school campus. For parents, they can be more comfortable knowing that less nutritious options will be reduced. I'm also grateful to many in the beverage and food industry for their considerable efforts to improve the nutritional quality.
"Arkansans should be proud that the policy included in this bill today will bring that same Arkansas common sense to the rest of the country. The initiatives and priorities included in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act will put us on the right path in terms of tackling obesity and hunger in America. This legislation is truly a reflection of Arkansas values of compassion in providing for our children, and responsibility in sending them the right message about nutrition and health.
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Here is the opening statement from this morning from the Ranking Republican on the Senate Ag Committee, Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia:
"Madam Chairman, I want to commend you for your leadership of this committee in tackling a very important topic to everyone involved. Your efforts have come to fruition with the legislation before us, The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. Over the past 18 months this Committee has had several hearings to review our current child nutrition programs, and three messages were delivered loud and clear: 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 very 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 calls upon the U.S. Department of Agriculture to establish a system for schools to demonstrate that they are meeting the higher standard in order to receive the enhanced reimbursement. I would like to take this opportunity to commend USDA Secretary Vilsack for making this issue a priority, and I urge the Department to be practical in the development of this verification process. The Department needs to work with stakeholders in developing an effective mechanism to determine compliance and must be cautious to not overburden school food service directors with unnecessary forms or bureaucratic hoops.
"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. While I have always been supportive of improving the nutritional environment of schools, I have been a strong proponent of local control and quite impressed with progress many schools have made without federal intervention. I have also been very 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 would like to take this opportunity to urge the Secretary to look closely at the success of the voluntary agreement between the Alliance for a Healthier Generation and member companies of the American Beverage Association. The result of this agreement over the past 3 years is an 88 percent reduction of calories in beverages shipped to all schools nationwide and an increase in healthy beverage options available in schools. After investing millions in renegotiating contracts and training suppliers to comply with the guidelines, I'd say these voluntary guidelines are a huge success and should be used as a model for future regulations.
"I remain concerned about using funding from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) as an offset for this bill. EQIP is highly popular and widely used by farmers, ranchers and private forest landowners. It is so popular it had $1.3 billion in unfunded applications in fiscal year 2009.
"EQIP was created to help producers comply with local, state and federal environmental regulations. It has successfully met this goal. For example, in fiscal year 2009, EQIP was used to develop more than 2,000 comprehensive nutrient management plans. These plans are used by livestock producers to comply with the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation regulation.
"Unfortunately, agriculture is facing many new environmental regulations from an activist, the EPA. The agency has proposed a new, unworkable regulation regarding drift from pesticide applications. EPA wants farmers and ranchers to get permits to control the greenhouse gas emissions from their operations. The agency also is planning to require producers to get duplicative Clean Water Act permits in order to apply pesticides.
"The administration argues that the cuts to EQIP will have no practical effect on the ground. However, I disagree. The cut will mean fewer producers will receive assistance to address the conservation and environmental challenges they face. I can't think of a less opportune time to reduce assistance available to producers to deal with current challenges and future regulations required by EPA.
"I would like to once again congratulate you, Madam Chairman, for putting before us a comprehensive plan to reauthorize child nutrition programs. The improvements to the programs contained in this legislation will not only fight hunger but also improve the nutritional intake and habits of school children across the country."
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